Heroes of Voltron
by NotSweetSkills0112943
Summary: Five rainbow-ish lions have crashlanded on the beach in Camp Half-Blood with people inside of them. Ok, that's cool. There's only one catch: Leo recognizes one of them. But why? And what are they doing here?
1. Chapter 1

Just to clarify, all thoughts are italicized. I don't know if I spelled that right, but my spellcheck isn't saying anything, so I'll assume I did.

Les go.

* * *

Piper was getting restless. Leo could tell.

Well, I mean, I guess all demigods are restless, but Piper was Leo-level restless right now, which is not a good thing.

Oops, I broke a narration rule. Ignore every time I say I, ok?

"Leo, are you done yet?" Piper asked. Leo shook his head.

"No, Pipes, I need 5 more minutes," he answered. Piper sighed and looked around bunker 9. She did not think that when Leo asked her to help him out, that she would just be standing here.

"Alright, finished!" Leo said, hopping down in front of her. Piper stared up at Festus the Dragon.

"There's literally no difference," she said. Leo tsked at her.

"Upon closer inspection, Mrs. Non-Believer, you will see that Festus now has:"

He paused for dramatic effect. Festus focused on a certain spot in the room, and lights like lasers shot out of his eyes.

"Laser eyes!" Piper exclaimed. Leo proceeded to whoop and laugh with glee.

Jason burst into Bunker 9, followed closely by Percy and Annabeth.

"Leo! There's trouble," Jason said, all out of breath. Percy was exploring the Bunker, having not actually been inside it yet.

"What kind of trouble?" Leo asked, grin leaving his face.

"Dude, there are five giant rainbow cats outside," Jason said. That was enough to get Leo to move.

They all ran back outside, and to the beach. Leo gasped when he saw the cats Jason was talking about.

Leo ran up to the black one and put his hand on it. He focused for a little bit, finally hearing something; but it was not Morse Code.

"Who are you? Where are we?" she asked. Leo started gently stroking the giant cat, calming it down.

_"My name is Leo Valdez. This is Camp Half-Blood,"_ he thought. He could feel the cat relax.

_"How did you get here?"_ he asked it.

"I'm not entirely sure, but please, can you see if my paladin is alright?"

Leo had no idea what a paladin was, but he stepped back, allowing the cat to stand up. All of the surrounding campers, including Chiron, backed up. Except for Leo.

Black moved into a standing position, then crouched down and lowered her ramp. Leo walked calmly inside, keeping his eyes open for any sign of danger. What he saw, however, had him rushing about.

"Holy schist," he said. He ran up to the unconscious body, checking immediately for a pulse.

"Apollo cabin! We need medics!" Leo shouted over his shoulder. Yes, there was a pulse, but it was very faint, almost not there.

Leo thought there would be a stronger pulse in his other arm, but there was no pulse at all. Actually, come to think of it, Leo could hear the inside of his arm. It was almost as if-

Will and a couple of other Apollo kids rushed inside, picking the unconscious dude up. As Leo exited Black behind them, he turned to the other cats. He reached out with his mind, connecting to them the way he connected with machines.

_"Hey, are you guys ok?"_

"We're fine, but how are our paladins?" asked the blue one.

_"I'm not sure. Can I board you guys and check?"_

All of the other lions agreed to let him onboard. Except for red. Leo tried to ignore their conversation as he helped the Apollo campers take the guy out of the yellow lion.

"Red, come on, he's trying to help!" argued Yellow. Red would not relent.

"How do we know we can trust these guys?"

"Because, they're helping us!" said Green.

"This doesn't mean- "

"Enough!" said Black, stepping forward and facing the other lions, which freaked the campers out.

"We have no choice right now. These strangers may be the only ones able to save our paladins. Besides," she turned to Leo, who was waiting patiently to enter Red, "The scrawny one has a true heart."

Red growled a little bit, but finally crouched down to let Leo enter. He wasted no time in getting this paladin out of here, but Leo couldn't help thinking that he's seen this guy somewhere before.

He brought the lions to the Apollo cabin so they could watch over their paladins. Will checked their pulses, consulted his Nico, and let the lions know that the paladins would live. However, they were not allowed to exert their bodies, which meant no training, running, stretching, arguing, and pretty much everything else the paladins normally did.

Red chuckled.

"I bet Keith will be happy about that," she said.

Leo led them into Bunker 9, and they seemed to get along with Festus great. Piper, Jason, Percy, and Annabeth all joined them in there, watching as the most powerful weapons in the universe played with a 60 ft. Celestial bronze metal dragon named happy.

"Where do you think they're from?" Annabeth asked.

"Definitely not around here," Piper answered.

"Leo, how can you understand them?" Jason asked. Everyone looked at him. Even the automatons, unbeknownst to them.

"I'm not sure," he answered. "I assume it's because I'm a kid of Hephaestus, but none of the others seem to be able to hear what they're saying."

"Like when you talk to Festus," Piper said.

"Kind of, except Annabeth understands him, too," Leo said. Annabeth frowned.

"No, I can't."

"Yes, you can. You speak Morse Code, right?"

Annabeth nodded, then understood.

"So, you and Festus have been communicating through Morse Code this entire time, and I haven't realized it?" Annabeth asked. Leo nodded.

"Wise Girl didn't realize something? Oh, no! It's the end of the world!" Percy said, but Annabeth kissed him.

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain," she said. Blue let out sound that sounded like a cat whistle, then played an audio she had secretly recorded of Lance shouting at Keith and Acxa to "get a room." This caused Percy and Annabeth to blush as everyone else burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Leo calmed down a bit when he realized that he recognized that voice. He couldn't remember it at the time, but this realization caused his laughter to die, killing everyone else's.

"Leo? What's wrong?" Piper asked.

"Hey, Blue, do you have any more recordings of that voice?" Leo asked. He knew his friends were curious, but he had to make sure this was the same person he was thinking about.

Blue searched her memory and found another one. The paladins had been having what they called a "Slumber Party," with Allura. It had been held in the lion's hangars as a way to keep them company.

Leo listened closely to the audio that was playing.

"Shiro, what are you doing?"

Blue decided to show them the recording, too, so now they were watching the guy from Black sneak up on someone they didn't recognize.

"Nothing, just coming over for a second," Shiro answered, a wicked grin on his face.

The other guy started backing up slowly, but Shiro tackled him before he could get too far.

"Lance, come on, help me out!" Shiro called. The guy from the red lion ran into the video, holding down the unnamed guy.

"Sorry, Keith, but Shiro's the leader!" Lance said, pure joy written on his face.

Leo's heart stopped. So, it was him. He knew he recognized that joyful Cuban boy.

It was Lance McClain.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey there! I haven't had much time to update any of my stories, but here's chapter 2, so I hope you enjoy!

**Yay more line break opportunities ok so here's the story**

_He got into his room, being careful to lock the door behind him. Lance moved over to his bed and sat down, trying to calm his nerves._

_They had just moved to Champion City. Lance wasn't used to this place. He was used to the quiet, peaceful nights of Cuba, where he could stare out the window at the stars and hear the waves overlap each other._

_Lance felt tears threatening to fall. He forced them back, determined not to cry about his situation. The move was hard enough already._

_There was a knock on his window. Lance freaked out. How was that possible? He was on the second story of their new house!_

_He turned to the window to see a scrawny kid perched on the sill, carrying another, younger kid. The guy was about 7 or 8. Lance couldn't tell because he was really short._

_He knocked again, and Lance walked up to the window, opening it slightly so he could hear the kid._

_"Who are you?" Lance asked him._

_"My name is Leo," he said. The kid in his arms stirred slightly, but otherwise he didn't move._

_"Listen, I don't have much time. What's your name?"_

_Lance thought for a moment, debating whether to trust this kid or not._

_"Lance McClain," he said. What? He told Lance his name, might as well be fair._

_"How old are you, Lance?" Leo asked him. Now he was getting uncomfortable._

_"Um… I'm 5," he said after a while._

_Leo smiled._

_"I'm 10. Listen, I need your help with something." _

_He rocked the little kid in his arms slightly._

_"Where is the nearest Foster Home?" He asked._

_Lance blinked and shrugged. _

_"I don't know. I'm sorry, we just moved here."_

_Leo's smile never left, and Lance felt his discomfort grow._

_"That's fine. Can you at least bring me to your parents?"_

_Lance nodded and pointed downwards. Leo disappeared from the window, and Lance raced down the stairs. Thankfully, his parents were still up. Even better, they were the only ones there._

_"Lance? What are you doing still up mijo?" Lance's mom asked._

_"There was someone at my window who needs help," Lance told her. As if on cue, there was a knock at the door._

_Lance's mother stood up and opened it, revealing Leo._

_"Who-?"_

_"I need to know where the nearest Foster Home is," he said. Lance's mother pointed down the street, and Leo smiled again, a relieved smile._

_"Thank you so much," he told her. He looked behind her at Lance. He winked at him, and took off._

**This is my excuse for a line break IDK what to do anymore ok bye**

Leo felt his nerves bubbling up, trying to scream at him.

"Blue, pause the image on those three, please," he said, voice shaking. He knew his friends were looking at him, most likely worried out of their minds for Leo's sanity, but he had to get a better look. Blue played the image back a little, and paused the feed on Shiro and Lance holding down Keith.

Leo knew it. It was Lance. He hadn't changed much since their brief late night encounters, but the majority of him had stayed the same. The same brown hair, chocolate skin, and sparkling eyes. He turned his attention to the other two: Keith and Shiro.

Leo didn't recognize Shiro, but he did recognize the name Keith. They had had the same foster mother-Teresa.

He remembered the night they got out of her home.

He also remembered what had caused them to leave. _Blood. It was everywhere_. _Oh, gods, the blood_.

He hadn't realized he was shaking until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I-I'm fine," he lied. Hopefully, Keith didn't remember that day. If he did…

Leo shook his head, trying to focus on one problem at a time.

"I know him," he told the others. "I know Lance."

Of course, Leo didn't tell them everything. He didn't mention anything about Keith, or Teresa, or the blood…

Piper did get upset about the fact that Leo had run away.

"I've told you guys this before," he'd argued.

"Yeah, but-" Piper stopped, realizing that she didn't have a good excuse for this. Leo raises an eyebrow, wearing his signature impish smile, knowing he's won this round. Piper felt her face heat up.

"Regardless, I know him. What was he doing in Blue?" Leo asked, remembering how Lance had been clutching at his mother while Leo ate food for he first time in days at their house.

The door to Bunker 9 opened, revealing none other than Lance and Shiro, both wanting to talk.


	3. Chapter 3

"Mom, have you found them yet?"

Keith was starting to pace again.

"No, not yet."

Krolia has been typing away at the computers furiously and almost non-stop for about 30 dobashes now. Her eyes were sore, her fingers hurt, and she was kind of tired. But, she didn't stop. Not for a tick.

Keith groaned annoyed, and went back to pacing. What mission were they on? What were they up to? Why wouldn't Coran tell him and Krolia? Most of all, why wasn't Keith there?

Keith has the answer to the final question: because he was with the Blades.

Now he groaned angrily. He gripped at his hair, nearly pulling out a large chunk of it in annoyance and frustration. Maybe he could reach Black?

Nah, communications were down. A telepathic search wouldn't work either. He and Black weren't connected like that anymore.

Allura said that if the paladins were ever in trouble, then they would let someone else pilot them to find the paladin… but the lions were missing, along with their paladins.

"Get some sleep," Keith told Krolia in a calm voice. He had noticed her attempting to stifle a yawn. He had been pushing her for 30 minutes straight.

Krolia nodded and backed away from the console. As soon as she left the room, Keith continued the search, trying to stop bad thoughts from filling his head.

_Normally, this is the part where Lance starts bugging me, _Keith thought to himself. _He was always kind of annoying back on Earth. He was also kind of helpful, like when we left…_

Keith stopped typing and focused on that thought. Left? Left what?

He racked his brain for the memory, and slowly it cane back to him.

_Keith was 4. His dad- would he ever see him again?_

_"Hello Keith," said a pretty black-haired lady. "My name is Mrs. Harmon, and I'm your social worker."_

_"What's a social worker?" Keith asked her. She smiled, tears in her eyes._

_"I'm here to take you away," she said. _

_"But what about daddy?" Keith asked. He could still feel the dagger in his pant leg. Always carry it, his dad had told him. It was the only thing he had of his mother._

_Mrs. Harmon's tears started falling. She smiled sadly, leading Keith out to her car._

_He remembered pulling up to a very nice-looking house and waiting in the living room while Mrs. Harmon spoke to the woman. What was her name? Teresa?_

_Mrs. Harmon left, and Leith had to cover his ears when Teresa shouted up the stairs. 5 kids came running down immediately._

_"State your name and your age," she barked._

_"Julia Sanchez, 15."_

_"Robert Wayne, 13."_

_"Annie Cardwell, 14."_

_"Marissa Hardwile, 14."_

_"Leo Valdez, 8."_

_They all looked straight ahead, their eyes tired, their postures stiff. Teresa turned to him and barked the order to speak._

_"Um… Keith Kogane, 4."_

_She shooed them all upstairs, where Keith managed to slip his knife under the dresser. He turned and saw Leo walk up to him._

_"Hey, Keith, right?" He asked. Keith nodded._

_"Welcome to He-"_

_"Hey, language Valdez," interrupted one of the kids. Robert?_

_"Yeah, whatever," said Leo._

Leo Valdez… the blood… Keith started shivering. What was that memory? He considered going to Krolia, but thought better of it. Maybe some training would-

His eyes lit up as he stared at the control panel. Without his permission, a smile creeped onto his face.

"Welcome home," he mumbled, temporarily forgetting about Leo Valdez and Teresa for the moment, as all his attention was on the screen that said where the paladins were.

**Yay more line break hey guys how's it going good ok cool**

"Where are we?" Shiro asked Annabeth, Percy, Jason, and Piper. Leo was busy showing Pidge and Hunk all of his crazy inventions and giving them a tour around Bunker 9. Lance and Allura were sitting with Shiro, both as curious about the situation as him.

"You're at Camp Half-Blood," Percy answered him.

"Is this Earth?" Allura asked.

"Yes, it is…" Piper answered, confused as to why she asked that. Annabeth has told her that elves really exist. Wasn't Allura an elf?

Leo walked back over with Hunk and Pidge, all of them laughing at something. Lance couldn't take his eyes off Leo. He felt like he knew him… which was impossible, since he'd never met these people.

"I just realized, we never actually got your names," he said. Shiro nodded agreement, as if he had been thinking the same thing.

"Safety measures," said Annabeth. "But now that we know you guys aren't monsters…"

Was she joking? Shiro hopes she was joking.

"My name is Annabeth Chase," she said, nudging Percy.

"And I'm Percy Jackson."

"Piper," she said, not bothering with her last name. These guys might recognize it, then ask her questions about her dad.

"Jason Grace," Jason said.

"And my name is Leo," said Leo, quickly glancing at Lance and away again.

Lance caught the motion and frowned. No, he definitely knew this kid, and Leo knew it too. So why…?

_"Where is the nearest Foster home?"_

Oh, quiznak. That's who he was.

Lance hadn't seen this guy since he was 5. Leo… he was carrying a kid. Now that Lance thought about it, the kid also reminded him of someone…

"Lance?" Shiro asked. Lance snapped out of his thoughts and focused on his leader. Something about Shiro still threw him off slightly, but otherwise, he was the same Shiro.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Are you alright?"

_I have just come face to face with a kid I haven't thought about since I was 5, and I might be rivals with the other kid this guy was rescuing,_ Lance thought bitterly. _Fine... heh, right._

"I'm fine," Lance said. He could tell the others didn't believe him, but to save an argument, they let the matter drop.

"Alright…" Shiro said, silently willing Lance to say more. He didn't budge.

"Do you and Leo know each other?" Percy asked. Annabeth jabbed him in the ribs.

Lance and Leo both glanced at each other, and looked away quickly. They ended up turning their heads, facing each other, and their eyes locked for just a moment.

In that moment, a torrent of questions and emotions passed through each of them. Where had the other been? How did they get here? What was up with Keith?

"Yes," Leo answered, tearing his eyes away from Lance. Lance wondered is he was just nervous or if something else was going on there…

"Was that Keith?" Lance asked, standing up.

Everyone else was confused. For the demigods, it was _Who is Keith?_

For the paladins, _what does Keith have to do with this?_

Leo immediately understood Lance's question and nodded.

"You've met him?" He asked solemly.

"You busted out of a Foster Home with him?" Lance asked. Leo smiled.

"Keith was in a Foster Home?" Hunk asked.

"What's a Foster Home?" Allura asked.

"It's where kids without parents go… they aren't always good," Pidge answered her.

"Leo… what are you talking about?" Piper asked, her patience wearing thin.

"I mean, Keith and I busted out of an abusive Foster Mother's home," Leo said, tears in his eyes. He refused to cry. REFUSED!!!

"T-Teresa…"


	4. Chapter 4

Oh gods, guys.

Ok, when I say I like to pain my favorite characters, this is what I mean.

It not the worst, but it's the most likely to happen in real life in my opinion.

You'll be able to tell that I don't really know much about this, but words can speak louder than actions sometimes, right?

Can they?

**No, Sweet, they can't. I thought you knew this already**

_Leo was crying. Why?_

_"Leo?"_

_He looked up at Keith, tear tracks still staining his face. Everyone else was asleep. _

_"K-Keith!" _

_Leo quickly wiped his eyes, suddenly aware that he was crying in front of Keith._

_"What are you doing still awake?" Leo asked. Keith shrugged and walked up to Leo. Without hesitation, Leo scooped the little 4 year old into his arms, feeling Keith's arms around his stomach like a lifeline._

_"I can't sleep."_

_"Why not?"_

_"I've never slept without my daddy."_

_Leo's heart stopped. Hearing those words… that just pained him. This little boy, lost in the world without anyone, is stuck in this sorry excuse for a foster home._

_"Do you know where he is?" Leo asked. His voice was trembling slightly._

_"He's with mommy," said Keith simply, leaning into Leo's touch._

_"Where's your mommy?"_

_"In space."_

_They sat there in comfortable silence for a moment. _

_"Where's your mommy?" Asked Keith. He looked up and noticed the tears had returned to his eyes. Without looking at him, Leo answered._

_"Gone."_

_Keith hugged him tighter. There were no words between the two, just loving silence. Leo swore to himself that night that he would do whatever it took to keep Keith happy and alive. He needed to get him out of here._

**The life of a line break is excruciating because you don't really do much**

"We're here," Krolia said. Keith stared in wonder at the planet Earth.

He had been thinking about Leo Valdez lately. Teresa was an abusive Foster mother… and Leo had protected Keith from her violent tendencies.

_"Remember, just do exactly what she says, no matter how much you don't want to," he had told him once. "And if you see someone else fighting back, turn your back on them immediately. You were never there."_

_"But what if they need help?" He asked._

_"Especially then,"_ Leo had responded. Keith still didn't think that felt right, but while he was there, it had kept him alive.

He wondered why, all of a sudden, he was remembering all of this? It couldn't be coincidence, could it?

He thought back to their last day with Teresa.

**Warning: this may be disturbing for some people**

_"Come on, down to the basement."_

_The kids all followed her. It had been two years since Keith arrived, and more kids had joined them. _

_Keith was still the youngest._

_They got down to the basement, and he stared in horror at the sight before him._

_Oh, god, there was a body. It was alive. He-he was alive._

_He started shaking, but remembered to take deep breaths. Leo, on his right, squeezed his shoulder in reassurance._

_He was scared, too._

_Teresa turned around, a dark gleam in her eyes._

_"Leo, sweetie, come here," she said, beckoning Leo forward. He nervously went, eyes never leaving the body._

_She put something in his hand-a hammer._

_"What?-"_

_"Kill him, arsonist," she hissed in his ear. The other kids all listened closely, since none of them knew Leo's past._

_Something like flames seemed to be dancing in his hair, and Keith could swear his ears were smoking._

_"What?" Leo asked, voice trembling._

_Teresa slapped him hard across the face, then grasped his shoulders and turned him to face her._

_"You heard me you little murderer. Kill him like you killed your mother," she growled. Tears were streaming freely down Leo's face._

_"I-I-I didn't," he stuttered, but Teresa started shaking him._

_Keith started panicking. What was she talking about? Leo would never harm anyone!_

_"Please, por favor, lo siento…" he started crying. _

_She slapped him again, sending him sprawling across the floor._

_"Kill him you little asshole, or I'll make mincemeat outta you!" She screamed. Teresa tried yanking the hammer from his grasp, but Leo wouldn't let go._

_Teresa was knocked to the ground. She struggled to get up, but found that she couldn't. Robert and Julia had tackled her, and pinned her down._

_Annie walked over and started punching her, while the others went to check on the tied up kid. Keith ran over to Leo, checking him over._

_He kept mumbling something in-was that Spanish?- but Keith couldn't understand him._

_Keith eyed the hammer. It was flat on one side, picked in a spike at the other. Leo was in shock, so it was easy for Keith to pull the hammer from his fingers._

_Setting it on the floor, Keith reached into his pant leg and pulled out his knife. It had a purplish tint to it, so he figured it was from space, just like his mother._

_He turned to Teresa, anger boiling inside of him. Leo would never kill his mother. It was not possible._

_No one made a move to stop him as he advanced toward Teresa._

_It had taken all night to calm Leo down._

**Right, if you skipped that last part, resume here please and thank you**

Keith shook his head. 5 years old, and he had already become a murderer? Whatever. He would do it again.

Keith pulled out the knife now, catching Krolia's attention.

"Keith?" She asked.

"You can wash blood off your hands, but sometimes it's still there... why?" He asked her. Keith fell to his knees, and Krolia rushed towards him.

"Keith? What's wrong?"

He started shaking. Tears spilled onto his cheeks and he broke. He told her all about that day, about Leo, and about Teresa. She sat and listened, not interrupting him once. He cried like he never had before, because he really hadn't. Not like this.

He didn't even know why he was crying.

When he was finally finished, Krolia started pulling away, but Keith leaned further into her.

"Please… five more minutes?"

She nodded and pulled him into her.


	5. Chapter 5

Omg guys, thank you for the reviews! I'm glad you are enjoying the story!

I'm kind of sad about the Voltron fandom ending, especially since I just got into it (I binge watched all 8 seasons in two weeks about a month ago), but hey, that doesn't mean some people can't still love it, right? It just means it not the top spot most trendy thing at the time. (I don't think it ever was, but I don't really care.)

Hope you all enjoy this chapter, and keep loving what you love!

* * *

Leo struggled to breathe. How did Lance know Teresa's name?

Leo looked at him, but Lance was too busy studying the floor. There was a look of pure horror etched on his face.

"Lance, who is Teresa?" Shiro asked gently. Lance shook his head, switching to Spanish.

Whatever he said, Leo responded, and Lance got more horrified. Piper's patience was already thinning out, but it was getting worse with every passing moment. Why couldn't they both miraculously speak French? Or, even better, why couldn't Piper understand Spanish just because she was Aphrodite's daughter?

"Guys, what are you talking about?" Annabeth asked. Apparently, she was having enough of the secrets, too.

Lance looked at them each in turn, eyes resting finally on Shiro.

He stared at his idol in wonder. Did Shiro seriously not remember that night?

"Shiro, remember when we were checking on Keith after we found out about his lineage?" Lance asked. Shiro thought for a moment, then his eyes shot wide. He nodded slowly, realization slapping him in the face.

"What are you talking about?" Allura asked. She had been so uncharacteristically silent, everyone had forgotten she was there.

"You know, when you started-"

Pidge let her statement hang in the air, but the paladins knew what she was referring to. It was when Allura had first started giving Keith the cold shoulder.

"Oh, yes..." she said. Lance cleared his throat.

"Uh, anyway, Shiro and I had both been worried about Keith, so we went to his room to check up on him."

He recounted that night for everyone.

_Lance knocked on the door, but of course, there was no answer._

_Shiro tried, but there was still no answer. They had been about to walk away, when suddenly a cry rang out from the room. Well, not really a cry, more like a strangled sob. Shiro busted down the door with his metal arm, running up to Keith worriedly._

_There was nothing wrong with him, really. It was just a bad dream._

_Shiro's heart dropped and Lance could feel his stop at the look of utter terror on his sleeping face._

_"Keith, are you alright?" Shiro asked in a soothing voice, shaking the boy slightly in the hopes of waking him up._

_"Stop... stop, please," Keith begged quietly. Shiro's heart started pounding, but he stopped, keeping up a cool and collected front._

_Keith started thrashing around, grabbing at his throat as though he were choking. Shiro's heart did a front-flip. Lance walked up, putting a reassuring hand on Shiro's shoulder. He turned to Keith, grabbing his hand._

_"No, no... let go of me!" Keith started crying again. Lance refused to let go, which only freaked Keith out more._

_"Stop it... no!"_

_"Keith, it's me, Lance," Lance removed his hand from Shiro's shoulder, using it instead to grab Keith's other hand._

_"Teresa, don't do it!"_

_"Teresa?" Lance looked at Shiro, silently asking if the name was familiar, but Shiro shook his head. The movement snapped him out of his shock, and he pulled Keith into a sitting position, hugging him._

_Keith started crying into Shiro's shirt, begging Teresa to stop what she was doing, let go of him, please, that was his friend, he didn't kill her._

Shiro took a shaky breath, remembering how terrified he had been. He remembered that when Keith finally woke up, he didn't remember anything about the dream.

Teresa... now he recognized the name.

"We have to call Keith," he decided, getting confused stares from everyone. "See if he remembers the name Teresa."

"No," Leo rejected the idea immediately. The demigods had never seen him so freaked out. They were wondering how he hadn't caught fire yet. There wasn't even any smoke!

"No, Keith can't remember... the blood..."

Now he started shaking. His hair was smoking, which freaked the paladins out, but the demigods were more worried about their friend.

"Why is he smoking?" Hunk asked nervously.

"Leo... what blood?" Piper asked gently.

"The-the blood..."

Leo fell to his knees, little flames dancing in his hair. His eyes were open wide, and he was hyperventilating.

Leo seemed to be in a different place. He was hugging his sides, gasping for breath. Piper tried walking up to him, but Leo could've been the sun. She couldn't get close.

Thankfully, Festus could, and he wrapped himself around Leo, trying to comfort him. Leo leaned into his metal dragon, closing his eyes so he could concentrate. This didn't help, however, as he saw the event playing again.

He watched as Keith walked up to Teresa, knife in his hand. Ready to attack.

"Keith," Leo had called to him. Keith turned around, face softening when he laid his eyes on Leo.

Keith seemed to have an internal struggle. Make her pay, or let her rot in jail?

His eyes met Teresa's, and his anger drove him toward her.

No, he wouldn't kill her. He wasn't a murderer like her.

Instead, he opted for carving 7 lines in her arm. He had a feeling the number 7 was important, and that it was tied to Leo.

"Look at this number, and think of the pain you have caused," Keith had all but whispered. "This number is important. Leo carries it. Do NOT forget this number, Leo's name, or this day."

Keith had stepped back then, clutching the knife in his hand. One of the other kids, Marissa, had grabbed a book and now smashed it against Teresa's nose, knocking her out.

Keith ran to Leo again, letting his knife fall from his hand.

Leo just stared at him, still in shock. He imagined that Keith carving lines into her arm didn't help.

"Are you ok?" he asked, fear in his eyes. Leo nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on Keith. Slowly, the other kids left, until it was just the two of them, but neither moved.

Everything else had happened in what seemed to be slow motion. Keith gasping, then falling sideways. Leo screaming. Teresa on her knees behind them, still clutching Keith's knife in her grasp. The kids who had previously been down here now came running back, horror taking over their features as they all gaped at the knife protruding from Keith's side.

Blood. There was blood everywhere. Keith's blood-the little kid Leo had sworn to protect had been stabbed, was now lying on the floor, dying-

Wait. He was dying.

It took Leo all of 5 seconds to realize that Keith had been stabbed. Ok, he had realized it, but was just now comprehending it.

He roared with rage, yanking the knife from Teresa's grip and slamming the hilt into her forehead, leaving a mark that would (hopefully) give her permanent brain damage.

He faced Keith, who was sweating and shivering with a fever. Their eyes met, and for the briefest moment, Leo felt panic.

Of course, he had been expecting that, but what he hadn't expected was the calm that came afterwards. Without moving his lips, Keith said his name, but it sounded really distant and far away.

He said it again, and Leo realized it wasn't Keith's voice. Who was that?

"Leo!"

It sounded panicked. It was a girl's voice.

"Leo Valdez, look at me!"

He shivered. The voice sounded scared, but he remembered that he didn't want to get on this girl's bad side.

Only one girl made him feel that bad. Annabeth.

He remembered that he was supposed to be in Bunker 9, talking to everyone.

"Leo, come on."

His breath hitched. This didn't sound like the paladins, or his friends.

It sounded more like...

"Leo, it's me, Keith. Open your eyes."


	6. Chapter 6

Oh, wow, this chapter sucks.

If you guys like it, that's great, but I think it could be better.

Lemme know: should I continue with Keith and Leo, or set that aside for the time being and focus slightly more on Lance? Either way, I'm going to have them both, just which should I do first?

**I don't know Sweet what plans do you have never mind I don't wanna spoil it**

Keith hadn't known what to expect. Really, he and Krolia were just running in blind.

They followed the coordinates to Earth, then pinpointed the exact location of the Black Lion. From there, all they had to do was land near the sight and hope no one found a kid wearing black armor with purple lights on it with a knife walking around with a purple woman with pointed ears, sharp teeth, and yellow eyes with matching armor freaky or weird.

Somehow, they managed to pull it off, since no one gave them a second glance. Either New Yorkers were used to weird things, or they just didn't think much of these two.

They had then followed the location to a massive hill with a mountainous pine tree. There was something like cables sitting at the base of the tree.

There was a woman leaning next to the tree. She smiled at them and pointed to the bottom of the hill.

"Zitó syngnómi gia ti lípsi tous, allá prépei na xérete óti ítan pros to kalýtero. Pigaínete, tóra, ópos chreiázeste. I Ártemis den apolamvánei ta vasanistíria ton mikrón paidión. Échete tin ádeia tis Íras," she said. Keith had no idea what she said, but he looked down in the valley again. He did a double take, not believing his eyes. This camp hadn't been there a moment ago!

He turned back to the old woman, but she was gone too. He almost said something, but he noticed Krolia heading down, so he followed her.

When they got to the bottom of the hill, the campers all stopped what they were doing and watched them.

Keith could feel his face heating up, and subconsciously, he stiffened. Great. Now he was the center of attention.

"Who are you?" one of the kids asked. She was holding-oh, god, was that a spear?

Keith gripped his knife harder, fearing a fight, but a dude on horseback rode up to them.

After a second, Keith realized he wasn't on horseback, he HAD a horse back. As in, he was a centaur.

"Are you a centaur?" was the first thing out of Keith's mouth. The guy smiled, then bowed down in front of Keith, who had no idea what to do.

"Yes. I am Chiron," he said, a twinkle in his eye. Keith's eyes widened.

"Chiron? As in, THE Chiron? The one who trained Hercules?" Keith asked. Chiron straightened back up, an amused smile on his face.

"The very same."

Keith's mouth fell open in shock.

"Medic!"

Everyone turned to the sound of the voice. Keith didn't recognize this guy, but he had blonde hair and copper glasses. There was a girl behind him, her brown hair in a braid.

"What is it?" asked another blonde guy, stepping immediately towards him. The first guy stopped, panting, and said hurriedly:

"Leo. Panic attack. Hurry," he said, pointing into the forest. Keith walked up to him, ignoring the weapons now aimed at him.

"Leo? As in, Leo Valdez?" he asked. The guy looked him over.

"You wouldn't happen to be Keith, would you?"

Keith took a shocked step back. How did this stranger know his name? Better yet, how did this stranger know Leo?

Keith nodded solemnly, and the girl grabbed his hand.

"Come with us," she said. Keith felt the inexplicable urge to follow her anywhere, but he nodded again, following them through the woods, not knowing if Krolia was behind them.

They came upon a cliff face, but the girl pushed it, and, miraculously, it swung open.

Keith was shocked at what he was seeing. There was a girl with honey blonde hair (seriously, were all of these kids blonde?) leaning down in front of something that was smoking. The girl led him over to the crouched girl, and he saw what-or rather, who-she was facing.

Leo Valdez.

He was muttering to himself, shaking, eyes closed, and smoking.

"Leo Valdez, look at me!" she practically shouted.

Keith knelt down in front of Leo, putting both hands on both shoulders. Before he knew what he was doing, he spoke to Leo.

"Leo, come on," he said, voice surprisingly calm.

Leo stopped shaking.

"Leo, it's me, Keith. Open your eyes."

Slowly, Leo opened them, staring directly into Keith's eyes. Neither boy could comprehend what exactly was happening at this time, but they both realized that this was the same exact position they had been in, years ago, when Keith was...

"Stabbed," Leo muttered. Everyone looked on in confusion, but Keith simply nodded.

"Y-yeah," he stuttered. It felt like his hands were over an open flame, but Keith dare not move them.

"You-you were stabbed," Leo continued. He started cooling down.

"There was so much blood," he said. His eyes never wavered from Keith's. Neither had ever felt comfortable with making eye contact, but this was different. They couldn't explain it, but this felt-comfortable. Relaxing, even.

Simultaneously, they pulled in for a hug, forgetting about everyone else.

Leo felt like he was 8 years old again, unable to breathe as he staunched the blood flowing from Keith's side. He remembered cradling the small boy in his arms that night.

Then he took off with Keith, no idea where he was going, or if Keith was going to make it. He had to find a foster home, fast. He saw a kid enter his room, and scaled up the wall. The kid's mom pointed him in the right direction, and Leo set Keith in front of the door.

He rang the doorbell, and a friendly couple came to the door, but Leo was long gone.

He had run back to Lance's house.

Behind them, everyone could only watch. Annabeth had figured that this was Keith, but hearing it confirmed her suspicions; Percy hadn't been paying attention and wondered who this kid was; Piper and Jason felt relieved that Leo wasn't shaking and muttering anymore; Pidge and Hunk wondered how Keith and Krolia found them; Krolia felt happy that Keith looked so comfortable; Lance remembered Leo at his window that night; and Shiro was worried.

He wasn't worried about this reunion. In fact, he smiled seeing Keith so relaxed. He was worried about what they were talking about.

First, he finds out that Keith had an abusive foster mother. Then, he finds out that he knew that foster mother's name. Now, he finds out that Keith was STABBED? How old would he have been?

He watched as Leo and Keith pulled apart. Keith helped Leo stand, which everyone could tell he was thankful for.

"So, you're Keith," Annabeth said, breaking the silence. Percy turned to her.

"Wait, THAT'S Keith?" he asked. Piper face-palmed, Jason groaned, and Leo laughed.

"Dude, he literally just said his name!" he said, still chuckling. Percy's face turned red.

"Um..."

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, causing Leo to burst out laughing again. Even Keith managed a smile.

His smile faded when he saw Shiro's expression. It was unreadable.

"Shiro?" he asked, which made everyone else turn to him.

"I'm fine, just... wondering," he said. Keith's face fell into a frown.

"Wondering what?" he asked, though he already knew the answer. He heard Leo talk about Keith being stabbed.

Shiro knew that Keith knew, and Keith knew that Shiro knew that he knew. (re-read that a couple times if you have to. Go ahead, take your time, I won't judge.)

"How old were you?"

As soon as the question left his mouth, everyone remembered what Leo had said. Stabbed...

"Six," Keith told him. He wondered briefly why he never remembered Teresa before the paladins went missing, but something told him someone had taken those memories...

The woman. Something about her voice had sounded familiar.

Shiro looked horrified at the thought of Keith getting stabbed at the age of 6, but Keith looked at Annabeth. He had already deduced her as the leader of this group from her body language.

"We saw an old woman on top of that hill. She said something to us in a different language, but Krolia and I had no idea what it meant," he told her.

"What did she say?" Annabeth asked, but before Keith could answer, the horn signaling dinner blew in the distance.

"It'll have to wait," Shiro said. "Is that horn important?"

"Yeah. It signals dinner," Piper answered. Percy smiled.

"My favorite camp activity," he said.

Percy led the way to the dining pavilion. He hoped the Romans were here now. Wait until Frank and Hazel heard about these guys showing up!

Well, the Romans were there, but so were the Hunters and Amazons. Reyna, Frank, Nico, Thalia, and Hylla were all discussing something with Chiron.

Annabeth walked ahead of the group now, wanting to speak to Chiron. There were no campers in the pavilion, and also no magic food, which Percy was upset about.

"Chiron? What's going on?" Annabeth asked, putting her hair up in a ponytail. Chiron turned to her, not surprised that everyone was here.

"Which of you is the leader?" he asked the paladins.

They looked between Shiro and Allura, but before either could move, Keith stepped forward.

"What's that?" Keith asked, pointing upward.

Everyone glanced up. Lance scowled.

"Lance…" Hunk said beneath his breath. Thankfully, Lance was the only one to hear him, but Lance shot him a glare.

_One word_, his expression seemed to say. If looks could kill, Hunk would have dropped dead.

Krolia had the ears of a Galra, however, and she heard Hunk. One glance at Chiron and she could tell he had heard him too, though neither said anything.

"Paladins, to the lions," Shiro said. They started scrambling back to the bunker, but the lions and Festus had already come out, sensing some kind of attack.

"Keith, can you cover us from above?" Shiro asked, turning to Keith. He nodded.

"You can come with me," Frank said. "I'm Frank, by the way."

"Keith," said Keith.

"Festus and I will come with you guys," Leo said, climbing onto Festus's back.

"Before we go to drastic measures, I'll go up and check it out," Jason said calmly, to which everyone nodded and relaxed. He got ready to go up.

The paladins stumbled back when Jason suddenly shot into the sky.

"What-?!"

The paladins stared in shock, but Keith only frowned. He thought about all the times he saw flames dancing in Leo's hair when he got upset or angry.

_Arsonist, _Teresa had called him. Was it possible that Leo...?

They watched in silence as Jason hovered there. After about 10 minutes, he came back down, looking pale and shell-shocked.

"I overheard them talking, but I couldn't understand them. They were speaking a different language," he said. "Like, Russian or something."

"Definitely Russian," Annabeth said.

"How can you tell?" Shiro asked. Annabeth pointed upwards.

There was a red star painted on the bottom of the craft, but it looked like a mix between that and the Nazi symbol.

Lance felt his heart drop. It was them again. _Please don't be going-_

"One of them said something about Cuba," Jason finished.


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry I haven't updated in a while lots of family stuffs going on ok here it is.

**Hi there I am a special linebreak yay speciality**

_Great_, Lance thought. They were going to Cuba.

He had been freaked out when Jason shot into the sky. He had come back down with even more shocking news.

Now, they were all on their way to Cuba, hoping to find out what these Russians were doing.

He scowled, something his face wasn't really used to doing. Normally, Lance would be smiling and whooping and having an overall BLAST at the thought of going home.

Now, however, knowing that he was heading back to follow the people responsible for his family's leave of their home…

Stop it, Lance. No complaining allowed.

Hopefully he could hide his Cuban heritage from everyone. Oh, wait… Leo and Hunk knew that he's Cuban.

They got closer to the island. Lance recognized the snow cone stand, then that old palm tree… and Veradera Beach.

Nostalgia washed over him like one of the waves from the ocean. He remembered swimming there with his brothers and sister…

Lance shook his head. Keith and Krolia had hitched a ride on Frank the dragon (which also freaked Lance out.) Hazel was riding a magical horse named Arion across the waves below them. Leo, Reyna, Nico, and Hylla were on Festus the dragon's back, Jason and Piper were riding a seriously cool electric horse thingie, and Percy and Annabeth were riding a black pegasus.

Yeah, not a weird day at all.

The landed peacefully on the beach. Lance watched as everyone exited their lions and dismounted their rides, but Lance stayed a little longer.

He could feel Red sending him some warm, comforting thoughts.

"Thanks Red," he mumbled. Lance climbed out of her cockpit.

"It looks like we've arrived before those Russians," Shiro said. Annabeth nodded agreement.

"Hazel, do you feel that?" Nico asked, touching the ground. He closed his eyes in concentration.

Hazel nodded grimly.

"This is a battlefield," she said. Lance's heart stopped. Do not find out…

"So many deaths… all innocent…" Nico mumbled. He opened his eyes, shock overtaking his features.

"Why?" Reyna asked. Hylla drew her two daggers, keeping her eyes open.

"Maybe those Russians have been here before," Annabeth speculated.

"Plan?" Shiro asked. Annabeth nodded.

"Split up into 4 groups. Lance, Keith, Piper, Hunk and I will be one team. Leo, Hazel, Frank, and Pidge will be another. Reyna, Nico, Shiro, and Allura are the next group. Hylla, Percy, Krolia, and Jason, you guys are the final group."

"Why 4?" Lance asked.

"Because, we have 4 Spanish speakers," Annabeth said. Lance blinked.

"Before you ask, you and Leo were speaking Spanish in Bunker 9," Annabeth said. Lance closed his mouth. Just like Keith, Annabeth could read body language, except she might be better.

Annabeth studied Lance for a second longer. Lance figured that if he wasn't careful, she might sense his discomfort and ask about it. Then the other paladins would never leave him alone.

"Alright, makes sense to me," he said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "Let's do this."

**Hi there my name is Linebreak ok not really I'll tell you later **

I know this is a really short chapter, but I have some plans and a system I'm following right now. Also, lemme know if you enjoy the linebreak dialogue.

-Sweet


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I'm not actually sure if Cuban Spanish is he same as Puerto Rican, but idc right now.

Bean89: everything is alright now, thanks! And the 4th Spanish speaker is Hylla, I assumed that since Reyna can speak Spanish and Hylla is her sister, Hylla can speak it too.

**The line break returns not the Jedi the linebreak **

Hylla, Percy, Krolia, and Jason wandered Cuba's south side, looking for someone to talk to. They weren't going to get any information just eating their snow cones.

"Please?" Percy begged. Hylla sighed. This is why she didn't work with boys. They just NEVER LISTENED.

"For the hundredth time: no!" She growled at him. Percy Jackson shut up.

For now.

"Look! Over there!" Jason said, pointing somewhere in the distance. Hylla had to strain her eyes to see what he was pointing at, but once she did, she smiled.

It was a person. A girl, at least 15. She was just standing there, watching them. As if she was waiting for them to approach.

Hylla walked up first, her eyes never wavering from the girl. When she got closer, Hylla noticed small details she otherwise would've overlooked: light brown skin, brown hair…

Actually, this girl kind of looked like someone she knew, but Hylla couldn't quite put her finger on it…

"Hola," she said nervously. The girl nodded in greeting. "¿Puedo preguntarte qué pasó aquí?"

Hylla didn't think the girl would be able to understand her, since Cuban Spanish was probably different from Puerto Rican Spanish, but the girl nodded.

"Si. Hablas Ingles?" She asked. Hylla nodded.

"Yes, I speak English."

"Good," the girl responded. "You want to know about those Russians."

Hylla consciously kept her mouth from falling open. How had this child known that? Percy came to her rescue, much to her annoyance.

"Yeah, we do. What happened down there?" He asked, pointing to the beach they had landed on.

"Bloodshed," she answered. Hylla wanted to shout _duh_! but she resisted the urge. The girl told them to grab their friends and meet her down on the beach.

She walked off, and Hylla turned to her small scouting party.

"Is it just me, or did she look kind of familiar?" Percy asked.

"Yes. Like the red paladin," Krolia said, visibly shocked that they hadn't made that connection.

Percy thought for a moment, then slowly he took on a look of shock.

"Wait… he's- Lance is-? What?"

Clearly, his brain had short-circuited, which was a surprise to Hylla, since (at this point, at least) she didn't think he had a brain.

"Apparently our new friend is Cuban… which means he probably knows what happened down here," Jason said, a small frown gracing his features. (Oh, gods... I'm just seeing that. Sorry, no pun intended.)

"Alright, so he's Cuban… but why did she remind me so much of Lance?" Percy wondered aloud. Hylla hated to, but she agreed with Percy Jackson.

Why did they seem so similar?

She shook her head, hoping to clear her thoughts.

"Whatever the reason, it's best we meet up with everyone else. Perhaps they have some insight," she commanded. Hylla and her small party headed to the north, hoping to run into some of their friends.

**Hi there ok bye lol idk anymore**

Wow. I think this chapter may be shorter than the last one.


	9. Chapter 9

Because the last chapter was so short, you get two of them today.

doing a shameful imitation of Maui* YOUR WELCOME!!!

Alright, here it is.

**How dare you imitate Maui Sweet**

Lance led Annabeth, Keith, Hunk, and Piper through the winding streets of his old hometown, hoping against hope that they didn't run into anyone he remembered.

Or anyone who may remember him.

He jumped a little when Keith put his hand on Lance's shoulder.

"There's a person," he said. Said person turned to face them, and he set down his cup of-was that soda? Water? Milk?

When they trudged over, it turned out to be fresh coconut milk. Lance loved coconut milk. Nothing could beat that perfect taste of sweet and liquid-

"Hola," said the stranger. Lance felt his face heat up. Of course, he was the only one who could speak fluent Spanish.

"Hola, importa si me siento?" Lance asked the guy. He nodded, and Lance proceeded to have a very lovely conversation with the old man.

Annabeth, Piper, Hunk, and Keith all hung back a little ways. Annabeth and Keith could tell, by reading his body language, that Lance felt both comfortable and restless here in Cuba. An air of familiarity surrounded him, as if he's been here before, but that was impossible. Ever since the Russians gave those bombs to the Cubans, Cuba has been closed off from the public; no one can get in or out.

Unless, of course, drastic times called for drastic measures…

"Hey, Annabeth, can I talk to you in private?" Keith asked. He pulled Annabeth to the side, out of earshot of Hunk and Piper.

"You can see Lance's discomfort, right?" He asked her. Annabeth nodded.

"It's almost like he enjoys being here, but at the same time, he would rather be anywhere else," she responded. Keith nodded.

"That's what I'm getting, too. Lance couldn't be Cuban, could he?"

Annabeth thought for a moment.

"It could be possible, but no one can get in or out, so how would he have-?"

"But if there was fighting going on? What then?"

Annabeth thought for a little longer. What Keith was saying made perfect sense, but still… how bad could it have been for a whole family to be allowed to escape Cuba?

Then again, Nico and Hazel had sensed a lot of deaths on that beach… lots of innocent deaths.

"If you're right, then maybe it wasn't the best idea for Lance to come back here. Then again, now he has a chance of stopping the people responsible for hundreds-thousands, maybe even millions of innocent deaths," she decided. Annabeth looked at Keith, surprised at how much he and Nico looked alike.

Sure, Keith was a couple of years younger than Nico, but they could pass as twins. Ok, that was an exaggeration, but still.

Lance finished up his conversation with the kindly old man. He walked over to Piper and Hunk, who led him over to Annabeth and Keith.

"What are you two talking about?" Lance asked suspiciously. Without even sharing a glance, Keith and Annabeth (somehow, it surprised them both) came up with the same excuse.

"We were discussing the beach," Keith said.

"What exactly happened there?" Annabeth asked. Lance frowned.

"The Cubans called it the 'Battle of the Beach.' A bunch of Cubans were holding off the invaders there, while a couple of families snuck off Cuba. Though what the Russians were doing here is beyond me," Lance said. He told the story as if he was signing a death warrant.

Annabeth nodded and they went back to the beach. She tried to picture Lance as a Cuban, maybe watching the fighting. As a daughter of Athena, she had to analyze and organize every piece of information she obtained.

Lance's familiarity, the fact that he knew where he was going here… he had to be Cuban. That would also explain why he never told anyone. How old was Lance when the fight started? Annabeth guessed he must have been at least 4-6. Maybe even 5.

She tried to put herself in that situation: a 5 year old, watching as her home was attacked and she had to literally run for her life.

Yeah, no wonder he never told anyone.

She looked up as she heard footsteps approaching from behind. Her muscles relaxed, and she prepared herself.

They were closer… closer…

The footsteps were right behind her now. Annabeth quickly turned around, grabbed the person's arm, and flipped them over her shoulder.

"I- what??! PERCY!!!"

She grumbled his name angrily, and her annoyance grew when he started laughing.

"Geez Wise Girl, don't get your hair in a knot!" He laughed. Annabeth kicked him half-heartedly and helped him up.

"Shut it Seaweed Brain, you had that coming!" She shouted. Annabeth tried to calm herself down.

She didn't need to try very hard, since Percy leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. It didn't last very long, but it did calm her down.

"Better?" He asked, flashing her a lopsided grin. Annabeth smirked.

"Maybe. We'll see."

She turned to face Hylla as Percy spluttered like a fish.

"Did you get any information?" She asked her. Hylla shook her head.

"No info, but we got a witness. She said to meet her down on the beach with everyone," Hylla said. Annabeth nodded.

"Alright, lets go find the others," she said.

As they walked, Annabeth told Hylla about she and Keith's suspicions about Lance. Hylla nodded, and explained that the girl they were about to meet had reminded them of Lance.

"Just wish we knew why though," she was saying.

"Maybe a sister? Or a cousin?" Annabeth guessed. Hylla only shrugged.

"Guess we'll have to wait and see," she said.

Annabeth glanced upwards in the direction they had come and frowned. She could barely see the silhouettes of the helicopters.

Hylla followed her gaze and started playing with the ring on her finger, the way Nico and Reyna did when they were nervous.

"Yeah, guess so," she said. They met up with their other friends, who had no new information for them, and together, they headed for the beach.


	10. Chapter 10

Hello!

If you have questions, pm them to me and I'll answer them. If you guys are enjoying this story (for some reason) then I will keep updating!

Also, if you have any stories, I'm going to read them. Just a heads up.

Alright, enough of my rambling. On to the story!

**Hey, Sweet, I was just wondering, when am I going to get paid?**

As they approached, the girl turned around, having previously been staring at the ever growing silhouettes of the helicopters.

"You'll want to be leaving soon," she warned.

"We know," Annabeth told her. She heard Lance's breath hitch at her side, and saw the girl's frown deepen slightly upon seeing Lance.

"Figured it out yet?" The girl asked Annabeth, who had no idea what she was talking about.

Lance stepped forward.

"Chances are, they did. But we don't have time for that," he said. Piper frowned.

"Figured what out?" She asked. Lance looked Annabeth in the eyes.

"That's what you and Keith were talking about, wasn't it?"

Just like Leo, Lance could be easily underestimated due to his humor and dumb questions. Obviously, he was smarter than he let on.

Annabeth nodded.

"You're Cuban, aren't you?" She asked him.

Everyone started studying Lance closer, maybe noticing the details between Lance and this random girl.

"Do you want the story, or not?" She asked.

Annabeth felt a stab of annoyance at her, but the wistful look she was giving Lance cooled her down.

"Yes, please," she said. The girl nodded.

"My name is Maria. I was only a baby when they attacked, but my parents told me everything. About 15 years ago, the Plokhiye Parni attacked Cuba. Apparently, the Russians were mad at us for never using those missiles.

"When the Parni arrived on the island, Cuban fathers from every province came together and herded them onto this beach, including my own father. They fought as hard as they could to keep them over here, allowing other families to escape. Some made it, others couldn't leave. They were born here, had lived and grown up here, and they decided they would die here.

"Only one Cuban man made it out of the slaughter: General McClain, but even he was in bad shape. His family had made it out safely, and they sent him there. I don't know what happened to him from that point, but I do know that he received a bullet to the spine. Somehow, he didn't get paralyzed, but temporarily, he lost his brain," she said. Lance was silent and staring at the ground.

Annabeth felt sympathy towards the kid. One glance at Frank, and she knew he felt it too. After all, his mom had been lost in a war in Afghanistan.

"I don't know about right now, but when the General arrived in America, they had to leave him in the hospital for 3 months. All he remembered how to do was breathe and blink. He couldn't feel anything-and I mean, feeling-wise."

Lance wiped at a tear and looked up at everyone.

"Dad started getting better when he came home. I decided to join the Galaxy Garrison in the hopes that I would become a fighter pilot, that way I could come back here and take out those Russians."

Leo shared a glance with Frank, silently asking him a question that Annabeth couldn't quite catch.

Leo turned back to Lance and said something in Spanish, to which Lance smiled. Annabeth knew a little Spanish, and was wondering why Lance said "I'm sorry."

_Later,_ she told herself. _Get this information here, now._

She searched for the helicopters again. They were even closer now.

Maria looked up at them too, and she paled.

"Hope the information helped you," she said hurriedly. She tried to rush off, but Lance grabbed her arm.

"Wait," he said. "I have something for you."

He pulled something out of his pocket: a little seashell necklace. He put it in Maria's palm, and closed her fingers around it.

Maria clasped it tightly, and Annabeth could tell she was fighting back tears.

"Que Dios pelee contigo y te bendiga con una larga vida," she said to him. Then she ran off.

The helicopters were within firing distance now. Annabeth didn't like that… not one bit.

"Anyone know how to speak Russian?" She asked. Hunk looked at her curiously.

"Why? You aren't going to try reasoning with them, are you?" He asked her.

"As a child of Athena, I strive for information."

She turned to the paladins, then locked eyes with Percy. He nodded encouragingly.

"There's a lot you need to know before we fight. It will be a lot to take in, and I hate to drop it on you, especially now, but you need to know: the Greek gods are real."


	11. Chapter 11

Hey guys! I'm BACK!!! Did you miss me? (Don't answer that)

Writers block is the worst. Sorry it took so long! Thanks for being patient!

Oh, I PMd a couple of people who asked me questions. If you didn't get the answers, lemme know and I'll just put the answers on here, ok?

Ok.

**Hey Sweet welcome back my fav part is SHIST**

How did this happen? Don't ask Jason, cause he's got no idea.

Alright, let's go back a little ways. Annabeth had told the paladins about their adventures and the gods, and they had handled it all surprisingly well.

Then, the helicopters were directly above them, which surprised Jason, since he should have been able to hear them coming.

Next, they were fighting, and doing fairly well mind you. Jason felt like his friends were losing. Sure, they were holding the enemy back. They were tearing them down. Why did he feel so nervous?

Then he realized it felt different because they were winning too easily. Sure, they were regular humans, but they still should have been harder to beat.

Just his luck, they were tackled from above, which had them pinned and surrounded. Now they were all being held prisoner in a boat that they hadn't noticed upon entry.

Seriously! How did they miss these things?

Unless these weren't regular humans, and instead they were creatures who could use the mist…

"Listen up prisoners!" shouted a voice. Jason groaned. Not this guy again…

A teenage boy walked into the room. Imagine Nico di Angelo with platinum blonde hair almost as curly as Leo's, with Percy's sea green eyes and a golden complexion. Throw him into a plaid shirt with coveralls, and you had Bustier, an Italian mortal with a lust for blood.

"Saluti, prigionieri! Come stai facendo questa bella mattina?" he asked. Why, oh WHY did he only speak Italian? And what was the story behind these guys? Jason thought the Russians were behind this?

"Chiuderlo. Cosa vuoi da noi?"

Thank the gods for Nico. He could speak fluent Italian.

Bustier's smile grew.

"Ah, Nico. Sei davvero il mio preferito, lo sai?" Bustier said. Nico spat something at him in Ancient Greek, and judging by Percy and Annabeth's reactions, Jason didn't want to know what it meant.

Bustier's smile never wavered, and he just shrugged.

"Qualunque cosa tu dica, amico mio. Ascolta, ho una proposta per te. Come ti piacerebbe unirti a me?" he asked Nico, who looked ready to murder.

"Go to hell," he mumbled. Then, in Italian, "Perché io? Percy è più forte."

The only thing the three demigods were able to understand of that sentence was the name "Percy," and even then they couldn't guess what he had said. Then, in perfect English, Bustier replied.

"Maybe so," he said, a slight accent in his voice, "But I imagine only you are as fun as I would like."

"What are you talking about?" Percy asked, genuinely confused.

"I'm talking about Nico's-how do I say this?-attributes," Bustier told him. Percy glared at him.

"You want Nico to join you?" He asked, a rare venom in his voice. Jason caught Nico's eye.

_Stay alert_, he seemed to say. _I have a plan._

"Fine," Nico said out loud. Percy, Jason, and Annabeth all stared at him in shock.

Oh, in case you're wondering, everyone got separated when they were captured. These four were kept together.

"Fine? What's fine?" Bustier asked innocently.

Nico growled slightly, and Jason could feel the temperature drop. Then the sensation was gone, and Nico stood.

"I said fine. I'll join you."

Bustier's smile widened. It was an evil smile, not a playfully evil one like Leo's, but an insane smile like the Joker.

"And what's caused you to change all of a sudden?" He asked. Jason hoped Nico was putting on an act to fool Bustier.

"I've always felt out of place among everyone," he said. Jason felt a stab of pain in his chest. Why did Nico feel that way?

"They've all betrayed me at some point. Percy caused my own sister to die."

Percy looked down in shame, as if it was true. What if it was true?

_No_, Jason told himself. _Percy wouldn't ever let anyone die…_

_Would he?_

Bustier smiled sympathetically.

"Poor boy. An outcast, alone. We'll give you a good family. There's just one thing you have to do first… Falli soffrire," he said. Nico smiled devilishly and turned to Percy.

He said something in Ancient Greek, and anyone who didn't know Percy would think he was terrified. Jason could tell, however, that Percy was secretly happy-relieved, maybe. Percy had fake tears in his eyes, probably brought there with his powers.

"N-Nico…" he stuttered. Ok, Jason KNEW that Percy was faking now. Percy doesn't just CRY when someone betrays him.

Bustier didn't know Percy. He didn't see the signs. Instead he gripped Nico's shoulder and steered him away.

When they left the room, Annabeth and Percy filled Jason in. Apparently, Nico was only pretending to have joined Bustier in the hopes of finding out where everyone was. Jason was so relieved, he felt like crying.

He studied the door, thinking of an escape plan, and thanking the gods a second time that day for Nico di Angelo.

Not everyone had faith in Nico, however. Namely, Nico himself. After he left the room his only thoughts were: _SCHISTSCHISTSCHISTSCHISTSCHIST_

Nico seemed calm and collected, but inside, he was a wreck. What had he been thinking? How could he single-handedly take on these guys if they found out his plan? Or worse… what would they do to him if they found out his plan? Would he be executed? What if they hanged him like back in ancient times? Or threw him into a sack and tossed him into a river like the Romans did? Or-

_Stop it, Nico,_ he chided himself. Nico gathered all his willpower and focused it into calming down. He's dealt with worse. Sure, the odds were not in his favor… he wasn't Katniss after all… but still. He didn't like his odds.

That settled it, then. Nico would have to make sure no one discovered his secret plan. Only problem- he didn't have one.

Ok, that's a lie, Nico had a plan. Step 1, trick the bad guys into thinking you are on their side. Step 2, think of more steps.

Not really a plan, but it was everyone's best bet.

Nico zoned back into the conversation with Bustier.

"So, I was saying, if you're gonna commit treason, you should be given a new punishment, right? One worthy of Hades himself!" He said. He grinned at Nico, waiting for an answer. Nico braced himself, and gave Bustier the smile he usually only gave ghosts who were getting on his nerves: a mischievous one.

"Yep," he agreed. He just hoped his act would hold up long enough for someone to think of a better plan. Otherwise, they were all doomed.

**Hey guys how's it going**

That's all for today.

YOURS IN DEMIGODISHNESS AND ALL THAT, VREPIT SA. ; D

Oh! For questions: you prob have some about this chapter. Here's some advice: don't ask them yet. The answers will come up in future chapters. Love ya!


	12. Chapter 12

Shiro glanced up as Nico entered the room. He tried to put on an angry face, and hoped he was pulling it off. Nico's crazy plan had started about two weeks ago.

Annabeth, Percy, and Jason were all being held in the room to his right. Pidge, Lance, and Reyna were to his left, and Hylla, Keith, Krolia, and Hunk were beside Lance's room.

Meaning that Shiro was with Leo and Allura.

Shiro knew Allura-duh, they lived together! But Leo? Shiro was stumped. He seemed like a good kid, and he hadn't imagined flames in his hair the other day.

Son of Hephaestus, huh? The blacksmith god? Maybe he could build them a way out of here.

"Hey, guys," said Nico. Despite everything he had heard about Nico, Shiro still didn't trust him. It was like some creepy sixth sense was hiding in his head somewhere, whispering to take the kid down… but Shiro couldn't do it. Nico was his best chance at getting out of here, no matter what that mysteriously suspicious feminine-like voice told him.

"Got anything?" Leo asked.

Nico nodded shakily.

"Bustier is asleep right now, but earlier he told me what's going on. Alright, so originally the Russians gave missiles to Cuba, back in World War II, right?"

Nico shivered when he mentioned WWII. Maybe he had heard stories about it firsthand from ghosts in the underworld, Shiro thought.

"Well, about 15 years ago, they came back to reclaim those missiles, sort of apologizing. Italians had followed them, also wanting the missiles, but they wanted to launch them anyway. Bustier was in charge of that, and guess what I found out? He's a demigod who roughed it! Anyway, the Russians and the Cubans were outmatched, underprepared, and brutally slaughtered by the Italians, but the missiles had already been disarmed.

The Italians come here once a month to try to reactivate them, but it's all written in Russian, so they have no idea," Nico told them.

Shiro tried to absorb that information. The Russians had come to apologize, the Italians came to activate the bombs, and so… the Italians were their enemies? Now Shiro was just confused. He thought the Russians were the bad guys?

"So, what was the symbol on the helicopter?" Asked Leo.

"That was the Russians, on their way to help the Cubans," Nico answered.

"How do we play into all of this?" Shiro asked. He noticed Allura was being unusually quiet about this. Maybe she was so scared he couldn't talk? Or maybe she was gathering information to calm herself. Whatever it was, Shiro worried for her.

As if thinking about Allura encouraged her to speak,

Allura said," it's Lance."

"Lance?" Leo asked her.

"Yes, Lance is from here, he knows Leo who knows the other demigods, and Lance knows us, the rest of the paladins. That's how we tie in to this whole crazy mess!" Allura said.

Nico nodded agreement.

"Yeah, that could be it."

Shiro saw Allura's logic and nodded as well. The beginnings of a headache could be felt, and Shiro winced with pain. Nobody seemed to notice.

"We have to find a way out of here," he said. Nico's face was grim.

He dropped a pair of keys at Shiro's feet.

"Will is gonna kill me for this, but I can only think of one way to get out of here," he said. Leo's eyes widened.

"You can't! What if you-"

"There is no other option Valdez! Unless you wanna he stuck here!" Nico whisper shouted. Leo shut up, but he was looking at the floor.

Nico took a deep breath.

"Sorry, but I have to. Now, hurry, so you can get the others. I'll meet you on the top deck."

And Nico bolted through the door.

It didn't take long for Shiro to unlock everyone's shackles. Soon, everyone was waiting for Nico in the top deck. Finally he arrived, looking even more pale than usual.

"Nico, I'll help you with it," Hazel said, offering her hand.

"And I'll lend you some strength," said Reyna. The way she said it made Shiro think she meant it literally, not spiritually. Maybe that was her power or something.

Everyone grabbed hands, and Shiro felt weightless. Darkness surrounded him, and he could've sworn he heard someone scream for Bianca. Who's Bianca?

Then the sensation was gone, and they were back in New York. They were right on top of Half-Blood Hill. Nico promptly collapsed. Shiro tried to catch him, but it was like his hands went though him!

Then he realized- his hands HAD gone through him.

Nico was still conscious, and he told them not to worry about it, which they all did anyways.

Nico followed them to Bunker 9, having stopped by the dining pavilion, snuck a magic plate out, summoned himself a Happy Meal, and seemed to be recovering.

"How'd you summon a whole entire Happy Meal?" Leo asked.

"Just did," Nico answered.

He glanced nervously at Leo, then looked away again. Shiro found that strange.

Kill the boy where he stands, said that weird voice. Shiro decided to ignore it, but it was harder than last time.

"I found something out about Leo," said Nico, voice smaller than Shiro could remember it being. Ok, that's not fair, cause Shiro hasn't known him very long.

"What is it?" Leo asked nervously.

"That… Teresa wasn't just abusive," Nico said, looking Leo in the eyes. Leo stiffened, glaring at him.

Wait… glaring?

The two seemed to have a silent argument, resulting in Leo's victory. Nico sighed heavily, and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"There's something we have to do though," Nico said to no one in particular.

"What?" Lance asked.

"We have to go visit Teresa."

**Authors Note**

I'm going to upload 5 separate parts to this story, because if I put all the stuff I wanted to happen here, this story would be WAY too long.

Sorry about the whole "translation" thing. From now on, I'll put the translation down here in the author's note, ok?

But the first part, with the old lady speaking a different language, you'll have to wait for. That's going to pop up in the future, but you have to be patient. I promise, you'll eventually find out what she said.

The second part to this series is going to be called : Fostering Clutches.

I'll put Nico's comversation with Bustier on a seperate page. Thanks for reading!

Yours in demigodishness and all that, Vrepit Sa my Holy Chalupas!


	13. Translations

**Chapter 8-Between Hylla and Maria**

Actually, this girl kind of looked like someone she knew, but Hylla couldn't quite put her finger on it…

"Hi," she said nervously. The girl nodded in greeting. "Can we talk to you for a second?"

Hylla didn't think the girl would be able to understand her, since Cuban Spanish was probably different from Puerto Rican Spanish, but the girl nodded.

"Yes. Do you speak English?" She asked. Hylla nodded.

"Yes, I speak English."

L/I/N/E/B/R/E/A/K

**Chapter 9-Lance and the Old Man**

"Hello," said the stranger. Lance felt his face heat up. Of course, he was the only one who could speak fluent Spanish.

"Hi! Mind if I sit down?" Lance asked the guy. He nodded, and Lance proceeded to have a very lovely conversation with the old man.

/L/I/N/E/B/R/E/A/K

**Chapter 10-Maria to Lance**

Maria clasped it tightly, and Annabeth could tell she was fighting back tears.

"May God fight with you and bless you with a long life," she said to him. Then she ran off.

/L/I/N/E/B/R/E/A/K

**Chapter 11-Bustier and Nico**

A teenage boy walked into the room. Imagine Nico di Angelo with platinum blonde hair almost as curly as Leo's, with Percy's sea green eyes and a golden complexion. Throw him into a plaid shirt with coveralls, and you had Bustier, an Italian mortal with a lust for blood.

"Greetings, prisoners! How are you doing this beautiful morning?" he asked. Why, oh WHY did he only speak Italian? And what was the story behind these guys? Jason thought the Russians were behind this?

"Shut it. What do you want from us?"

Thank the gods for Nico. He could speak fluent Italian.

Bustiers smile grew.

"Ah, Nico. You really are my favorite, you know?" Bustier said. Nico spat something at him in Ancient Greek, and judging by Percy and Annabeth's reactions, Jason didn't want to know what it meant.

Bustier's smile never wavered, and he just shrugged.

"Whatever you say, my friend. Listen, I have a proposal for you. How would you like to join me?" he asked Nico, who looked ready to murder.

"Go to hell," he mumbled. Then, in Italian, "Why me? Percy is stronger."

The only thing the three demigods were able to understand of that sentence was the name "Percy," and even then they couldn't guess what he had said. Then, in perfect English, Bustier replied.

"Maybe so," he said, a slight accent in his voice,

"But I imagine only you are as fun as I would like."

"What are you talking about?" Percy asked, genuinely confused.

Aaaalllyyyyyyooooop line break thing

"Poor boy. An outcast, alone. We'll give you a good family. There's just one thing you have to do first… Make them suffer," he said. Nico smiled devilishly and turned to Percy.

**Edit 3-23-19 at 4:46 pm**

Ok, so if people have questions for me I'll answer them here by writing when I answered them.

ShadeFireDragon: it's actually something on the Taco Bell menu, but in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 2012 series... I'm a huge fan) Donnie and Mikey say "Holy Chalupa!" And in one episode, Mikey (the orange one) goes by the Holy Chalupa.

Matt: I'll tell you what I told SFD (but idk if they got it or not) this plot is as much a mystery to me as it is to you. I have the basic story down, and I know what happens, but how it gets to that point just comes to me as I type.


	14. Fostering Clutches 1

Ok, so if you've been following Fostering Clutches, you'll have already read (probably) the note I put up.

Like I said, it was too complicated.

If you haven't been following it, basically I'm moving the story here for the sake of simplicity. Yeah.

So here ya go!

* * *

This stakeout mission had lasted-what? 3 days now? Nico was getting bored and restless, which is really NOT a good thing if you're a demigod.

What's worse is that he was stuck here with Leo Valdez, Keith Kogane, and a dude named Shiro.

Yep, he was hiding his full name.

Nico still couldn't bring himself to tell Leo. If he knew, who knew what would happen? How many fires would they have to put out?

But, as much as he wanted to, he couldn't keep it a secret forever. Leo was already starting to get on his nerves about being here.

"Hey, Leo," he found himself calling. Instead of getting just Leo's attention, however, he got the other's attention as well.

Go figure.

"What is it, Nico?" Leo asked.

Nico would kill anyone and everyone who found out he thought this, but Nico did find Leo kind of hot. No pun intended, but he had Will, and Leo had Calypso.

"It-it's about Teresa..."

Leo was instantly on guard. Nico could see Keith stiffen up slightly as well.

"Leo... Teresa... she..."

Why was it so hard to talk all of the sudden?

Now or never idiot, a tiny voice inside of him said. Nico steeled himself.

"LeoTeresaconvincedyouraunttogiveyouuptochildservices," said Nico. His face turned red when he realized that he had sputtered it all out in one large breath. How did he relaize this? Everyone's confused faces.

"Nico, calm down," said Leo in a placating voice. "Now, repeat what you said."

Why, oh WHY did everyone have to be watching? Not just for Nico's sake-gods, this was embarrassing-but for Leo's as well. This was personal.

"Leo, Teresa... well, she was the one to convince your aunt to give you to child services," said Nico. He thought he had messed that up again, since everyone was still giving him funny looks, but one glance at Leo, and Nico figured it out.

In his nervousness, he had said it all in ancient Greek. Oh, well. At least Nico had kept it personal for Leo.

"How?" Leo asked, still in ancient Greek. Nico was surprised at how calmly Leo was handling this information and plowed through with the explanation.

"She's actually a demigod. A Roman one," Nico explained, consciously keeping the conversation in ancient Greek. What? Leo could tell everyone his own secrets!

"During the second Titan War, Teresa allied herself with Kronos. Apparently, she never made it to Camp Jupiter, and maybe she might just be a descendant of some Roman god. Whatever that is, she was on team Kronos, and she spent years collecting demigods.

"She must have found out about you, somehow, and used the Mist to convince your aunt to give you away. Once she got her hands on you, it was only a matter of time before she killed you."

Most of Teresa's plan still didn't even make sense to Nico himself. How did she find out about Leo? Why did she never make it to either camp? How exactly did she control Leo's aunt? There were a lot more questions that Nico wanted the answers to, but he didn't have any of them.

"My aunt was never the nicest person, though," said Leo. Nico wanted to comfort him, but thanks to his dad's own social skills, Nico had no idea what to do.

Before he could say anything, Keith's communicator went off, signaling 12:00.

Nico cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Right, so..."

Nico turned his attention back to the house where, the same as every day they've been here, Teresa left the house to go buy some mystery groceries. Leo and Keith refused to tell them what she bought, but they did mention that she was always gone for exactly 15 minutes.

"Alright team, let's go," Shiro said. They all followed him inside the house, which was incredibly easy to break into, by the way. It was almost like she didn't lock the doors or something.

"When she's gone, she keeps all the kids locked in the basement," Leo said.

"So kind of you to stop by," said a voice from behind them. They all jumped in surprise to see Teresa standing there in the doorway, a guilty-looking child by her feet.

"Dismissed," she hissed. The terrified child bolted up the steps, taking them two at a time. Nico turned his attention back to Teresa, who actually (without the ice in her eyes, that is) looked like a very pleasant woman. She was a brunette (um... she has brown hair) and she had green eyes. Really, she could pass off as more of a Gaea than Gaea could. In fact, this woman looked like a goddess.

"Leo, Keith, so lovely to see you again!" she said, her eyes still cold as ice.

Leo and Keith both looked like deer caught in headlights. Leo was trembling, as if he wanted to run for it.

"Hello Teresa," he said, once again surprising Nico with how calm his voice was. Teresa's smile grew, and Nico could feel goosebumps crawling around on his skin.

"Won't you sit?" she asked, voice dripping with false kindness. She sat on a recliner and gestured towards the couch.

"I would rather stand," Leo answered. His voice was as cold as her eyes.

"Now, now. That's no way to speak to your mother," she said. Leo tensed.

"You aren't my mother," said Leo, voice hard as a rock.

"That was hurtful, dear," said Teresa, unfazed by Leo's tone. "Whatever makes you say that?"

"The fact that mothers aren't stuck up bitches," Leo said. Nico resisted the urge to laugh and yell burn!

Teresa's smile faded, and Nico could hear soft laughter coming from upstairs. Nico allowed himself to smirk.

This just ticked Teresa off more. Nico smiled, and he allowed himself to laugh. Shiro and Keith must have noticed Teresa's reaction to Nico's good mood, because then they started laughing too.

"Silence!" Teresa barked, and Nico found himself obeying. Wow, ok. This woman could be mean when she wanted to.

Sure, he had heard that Teresa was Leo's abusive foster mother, but Nico had underestimated just how bad she truly was. The smile was back on her face, and Nico could tell she had something sinister planned.

"So," she purred, "That's the game you want to play, eh? Well then, maybe I should give you what you want."

She stood up from the couch and walked over to a door in the stairwell. Teresa pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door, opening it wide enough for Nico to see stairs leading downward; the basement.

Nico vaguely remembered the laughter he heard coming from upstairs.

"They're all right down there," said Teresa, gesturing to the stairs. She started heading down, and Nico figured that if this was some sort of trap, she would be trying to head in last.

Besides, he definitely could sense something down there. He glanced at the others, silently asking them what they wanted to do, and they all followed her down the stairs.

It seemed to go on forever, but finally, they reached the bottom. Nico looked around, but it was too dark to see anything. Leo and Keith were looking around frantically, as if remembering their time in here.

They seemed... very disturbed by what they remembered. Nico turned toward Teresa, but she was nowhere to be seen.

He turned toward the stairs, but they had disappeared as well. Or maybe he was looking in the wrong spot.

It was no use. It was too dark down there to see anything.

"Leo, could you shin some light for us?" Nico asked. He turned to where he had last seen Leo, but it was no use trying to see anything at all. It was so dark down here, that Nico couldn't see his own arm.

Then again, he wore black shirts.

But then again, they were always short-sleeved black shirts.

"Leo?"

He wasn't answering. Great, just what Nico needed. What if he had disappeared, too?

"No worries, I got it," said Shiro, who was on Nico's right. Shiro's arm lit up, and finally Nico could see.

"Thanks," Nico said.

"It was all a trick, wasn't it?" Shiro asked. Nico nodded.

"Yeah. I just can't believe we fell for it," Nico agreed.

"Well, did you hear her voice? Something about it..." Shiro muttered. Nico felt like someone had slapped him.

"That's it!" he exclaimed suddenly. Shiro looked at him, and confused expression on his face.

"What's it?" he asked.

"She can control the Mist. Maybe, just maybe, she can also charmspeak! The only question is, how? You can either be born with that knowledge, or you can learn it through Circe..."

Nico stopped talking by that point. He remembered how Reyna used to work for Circe, who would teach her most devoted followers how to do those things. Reyna and Hylla were able to tell when someone was charmspeaking, at the least. Was it possible that Teresa had worked for Circe once upon a time?

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not hearing Keith and Leo," said Shiro. Nico felt slapped again. He had gotten so caught up in his thoughts, that he completely forgot about the situation they were in.

"This can't be a very big basement," Shiro said.

"We should be able to wander around and hopefully stumble into them," he continued.

"Or," said Nico," I could do this."

He reached out with his senses, trying to find anyone. He started with him and Shiro, then reached out a little further. Finally, he found Keith and Leo, huddled together inside a very tiny room. How they managed to find it, and why they huddled there together, were beyond Nico.

"I found them. They're this-"

Nico felt a sudden sense of cold wash over him, and he fell to his knees. He was so cold, his teeth started chattering.

"Nico? Are you alright?" Shiro asked, bending down to help him up. Nico looked up at his face and yelped, jumping back in surprise.

"What is it?" Shiro asked.

"You-you look-"

You know those really colorful skulls that you see on the Day of the Dead? If you don't, feel free to look it up. That's basically what Shiro looked like.

There was also something else about Shiro-as it he wasn't really there. His skin was tinted purple, his hair white, and his eyes yellow. There were red marks on his face, but Nico didn't think much of it, since it was gone in an instant, replaced once again by the skull.

"N-nothing," Nico stammered once his heart rate was back to normal. He still felt really cold though, as if he was swimming in ice water with no clothes on.

He stood up, teeth chattering, and they made their way over to Keith and Leo.

"Guys, what's going on?" Shiro asked when they approached the two. Keith and Leo looked up, and Nico's heart raced again when he saw that they looked like skulls, too.

Shiro jumped back in surprise this time, but Leo and Keith didn't seem to be shocked by Shiro's appearance.

"Sorry, we just..." Leo broke off.

"Panicked," Keith finished. He looked Nico up and down.

"You don't look like a skull," he noted.

"But you do look like you're freezing," Leo said. Shiro put his arm around Nico, who didn't shy away. Instead, he leaned into the touch, soaking up the warmth.

"You're as cold as ice," said Shiro.

"Hang on, I'll get a fire started," offered Leo. He looked around, and occasionally he would bend down and pick something up. He set fire to his hand, and Nico realized just how ghostly everyone looked. They could have been in the underworld.

"Here," Leo said. He had found a bunch of papers to burn, and Nico sat down by the fire, absorbing the heat.

"Thanks," he croaked. His teeth were still chattering, though.

The other three snuggled against him, Leo right in front of him. Nico felt uncomfortable, but after a while, he noticed just how much he really needed this.

After a while, Nico didn't feel physically cold anymore. It felt like the cold was emanating from his bones, spreading throughout his whole body, and turning his skin blue. Literally.

No, seriously, his skin was turning blue. Nico looked down and saw his fingers had taken on an icy blue color.

"That can't be good," Leo muttered.

* * *

And that's a wrap!

Stay posted peeps. And don't ask questions about why Nico got cold, why his skin was blue, etc. I'll explain it later. And again, if you don't know what those Day of the Dead skulls look like, feel free to look it up. I had to, just to make sure I was talking about the right thing.

Yours in demigodishness and all that, vrepit sa my Holy Chalupas! See you on the creature trail!

-Sweet


	15. Fostering Clutches 2

This is really short now that I'm going back through. Ugh. Reposting these chapters is as hard as Tartarus.

* * *

Nico was shaking really bad, but Shiro didn't think it was from the cold. Well, it could have been. Who knows?

"Dude,get closer to the fire," said Leo. Nico nodded and scooted closer to the fire, trying to get rid of the icy color.

Shiro studied the son of Hades. Being the child of the god of the dead, it made no sense that he wouldn't look like a skull-really, he thought Nico would be the only one to look like this.

At least now Shiro knew why Nico freaked out earlier when he saw him.

"Thanks guys, but we should focus more on getting out of here," said Nico, still shaking. Shiro had to give credit to him. Nico was probably freezing to death (no pun intended) yet he was willing to step away from the warm fire to find a way out of here.

"Agreed, but you aren't leaving my side," Leo said sternly. Nico blushed slightly.

"Why not?" He asked, an edge to his voice.

"I found out a couple years ago that I radiate heat," Leo said. "I'm like a portable heater."

He wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders, and Nico leaned into him.

"Thanks…" he mumbled.

"How did you get out of here in the past?" Shiro asked. Surely they remembered a way out.

Shiro's hopes sank as Leo shook his head.

"No way out. We had to wait for the stairs to rematerialize," he said. He glanced to the spot where the stairs used to be.

"How come they disappeared?" Shiro asked. Leo and Keith both shrugged.

"Leo, I think Teresa studied with Circe," Nico said.

"Who?" Shiro asked.

"The sorceress?" Keith asked. Leo nodded, and Shiro was confused.

"She's immortal and teaches magic, right?" Keith asked. Leo nodded again.

"Yeah, and we know a couple of her former students: Reyna and Hylla."

"How does that explain the stairs?" Shiro asked.

"My theory is that Teresa didn't make it to either camp… whether she's a Greek or Roman demigod, she was never claimed, because she never made it to a camp. Instead, she somehow got stuck in the Sea of Monsters, washed up on Circe's island, and…"

Nico paused for a second, trying to catch his breath. Shiro studied his fingers. The frost had spread all the way up his fast, Shiro thought.

"Learned how to control the Mist, as well as charmspeak," Nico finished. He leaned into Leo a little more, and his arms defrosted a little.

"What does that have to do with us turning into skeletons, or Nico freezing?" Keith asked.

"How did any of that happen?" Keith mumbled, adding even quieter, "I'm confused."

"I'm not sure… when did Nico start freezing over?" Leo asked Shiro.

"When we were trying to find you," he answered. "He said he was going to try something, found you guys, and then he just… froze?"

Sorry Leo, but that's the best you'll get, he thought grimly.

"You used your powers?" Leo asked. Nico looked down.

"Will is going to kill you! Especially with that shadow jump you pulled to get off that ship…"

"Don't you think I realize that?" Nico snapped weakly. His lips were tinged with blue, and frost started creeping up his arms again.

"Powers…"

Shiro thought about something for a moment. Leo had fire powers, Nico could teleport and raise the dead and stuff, he himself had a glowing arm, and Keith was half alien. They had a pretty crazy team, which was giving Shiro a pretty crazy idea.

"Do you guys have phones or something?" he asked Leo and Nico.

"No, we don't. No demigod does. It sends up a signal that monsters can use to track us, remember?" Leo answered. Shiro turned thoughtful for a moment.

"So, how do you all communicate with each other?" Shiro asked.

"Iris messages," Leo said.

"You mean the goddess Iris?" Keith asked. Leo nodded.

"Yeah, we throw a drachma into a rainbow, say something, and boom."

"Could you Iris message someone?" Shiro asked.

"Do you see any rainbows?" Leo asked.

"So make a rainbow," Shiro said.

"I can't," Leo said. "I don't have any water."

"What about crystals?" Keith asked. He had started catching on to Shiro's train of thought.

"Where would I..." Leo started, then he seemed to get it.

"My toolbelt?" he asked. Shiro nodded.

"It can only give me things that you can find in a machine shop," Leo said downheartedly.

"Maybe there's something down here?" Nico suggested. Leo looked around for a little bit, thinking.

"Maybe... but even then, it would be too risky moving you," he finally said after a moment. They saw what he meant. Now Nico's arms were completely frozen, his lips a frosty blue. He was shaking uncontrollably.

"Then someone stays here, to keep Nico warm," Shiro said. He turned to Keith. "We can look for some find of crystallized item."

"Be careful. We don't know what's down here," Leo warned. Shiro looked around, slightly panicked, but nodded. This was important.

"We will be. Try not to freeze," he said.

* * *

Ok, so, I have dug myself into a plot hole.

Yay.

The good thing is, I have an idea as to how everything ended up happening.

But you guys know how you know something, but its incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to explain?

I'm having one of those moments with this. I know it, but I don't know how to explain it. I hope I can figure it out.

Until then, try not to be angry with all the confusing stuff I'm leaving here.

Yours in demigodishness and all that, vrepit sa my Holy Chalupas! See you on the creature trail!

(I barely edited this chapter at all.)


	16. Fostering Clutches 3

Hi. Three chapters in one day? Whoof! Well, I needed to catch you up somehow, right?

**You can tell where I type if I do these line breaks I'm on my phone**

Keith was still seriously confused. How would Teresa have ended up in the Sea of Monsters? What was the Sea of Monsters? Why did Teresa never make it to any of the camps? Was she a demigod? Why did she hate demigods? Why did she hate him, when he isn't a demigod? What if his dad was a demigod, and he hadn't ever known? If his dad was a demigod, did a monster kill him? Were monsters real? Were they hiding down here? Why did he have so many questions, and no answers?

He tried to calm himself down, but it was no use. He felt 4 years old again, as if he was trapped down here for the first time.

_"And stay down there, you little rat!"_

_Teresa had thrown him down the basement stairs. Literally._

_He landed on his hands and knees, trying not to show his tear-stained face. _

_"You'll come out when you learn to behave," she hissed. She slammed the door shut, leaving Keith in total darkness._

_He had turned around, looking for the stairs, but of course they hadn't been there. He had started crying, then even harder when he heard the voices. Thousands of them, screaming in eternal agony._

Now that Keith thought about it, he wondered how he hadn't gone insane. Teresa had left him down there for... what... 3 hours? It had been difficult to tell.

"Hey, you alright?" Shiro asked from beside him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, not looking Shiro in the eyes.

"Where do you think we could find something crytal-ish?" he asked. Keith smiled a little.

"Not sure," he said. Keith suggested Shiro light up his arm, so they could see.

The basement looked much different from when Keith had been in here last. For one thing, it was much bigger, and definitely darker. He remembered that Teresa hated the dark, and she never came down to the basement by herself. He wondered why.

"Ooh, look at that," Shiro said, pointing to a spot just ahead of them. It was hard to make out with all the darkness, but upon closer inspection, Keith could see it was a dog.

But not just any dog.

It had to be at least 3 times larger than any dog he'd ever seen, with glistening fur as dark as night.

"What is it?" Shiro whispered.

The dog turned and growled at them. Keith felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Every bone in his body told him to run.

Instead, he stared the beast down, trying not to show his fear.

It lied down, wagging its tail. Keith could see a collar on the thing.

"Mrs. O'Leary?" Shiro read. Keith shrugged, confused.

"I don't remember it being down here at all," Keith said.

Shiro walked up to it and started rubbing the head. Mrs. O'Leary stuck her tongue out and wagged her tail harder, eventually rolling onto her back and dropping her head into Shiro's shoulder.

"Aw, she's friendly!" Shiro cooed. Keith still felt like running, but she wasn't attacking (or trying to eat) Shiro, so Keith walked up to her as well. Who knew giant black dogs liked to have their bellies rubbed?

"Maybe one of us should run back and tell the others," Keith suggested, and Shiro ran off in the direction they came from. He came back a moment later, saying that Leo told them to bring her, and they went.

"Oh, thank the gods," Leo said. Mrs. O'Leary sniffed at his hair and nuzzled him with her nose.

"Ah! Wet!" Leo yelped.

"Mrs. O'Leary, what are you doing here?" Nico asked, though Keith could hear the relief in his voice. She barked once, putting her paw on his head, then rested her tail on Shiro's shoulder. She was still nuzzling Leo's hair, but she stopped to look at Keith.

"You want me to pet you?" he asked her. He started stroking her fur, and she rested her chin on Leo's head again.

A familiar lurch struck Keith, and suddenly they were outside. Mrs. O'Leary disentangled herself from everyone, then disappeared. She came back a moment later with two people, one of which Keith recognized.

"Piper?" he asked. She blinked, looking severely confused.

"Wait...what am I doing here?" she asked. The guy who was with her took one look at Nico and blanched.

"Oh, gods... NICO!" he exclaimed. Immediately, he was by the freezing kid's side, checking his pulse, obsessing over him, and trying to get him to drink some... Gatorade?

"What happened to him?" the kid demanded.

"Geeze, calm down Will," Nico muttered. He took another sip of Gatorade, and Keith was amazed at how quickly his color was returning. "I'm not dying or anything."

Keith was about to say that he was, but Leo put a hand on his shoulder, signifying that it would do more harm than good.

"I need to get you back to camp..." he muttered. Then, in a doctor kind-of voice, he said, "Two days in the infirmary."

He ignored Nico's protests and turned to Shiro.

"Where were you guys?" he asked.

"Um... we, um..." he stammered.

"Locked in the basement of Teresa's house," Nico answered for him.

Piper paled. Leo and Keith glanced at each other, both thinking the same thing.

_How_?

How had Mrs. O'Leary known they needed help? Or was she just there at the right time? If that's the case, what was she doing there? Why did she bring Piper here? Also, WHY THE QUIZNAK WAS NICO FREEZING?

More questions, less answers. And they both knew there was only one place to get them.


	17. Fostering Clutches 4

Hello. I b back.

Bean89: because it's fun! (No, it's because I run out of ideas quickly, also because I just stop wherever it feels right. And it just happens to be cliffhangers. ; ))

So enjoy!

**Hi hello hola como estas How b you**

Leo took a deep breath. Last time they entered Teresa's house, she had locked them in the basement with all their bad memories. Oh, and also, they turned into skulls again.

He still wanted to know what that was about, and if any of Nico's theories and accusations were correct. They made sense to Leo, but were they wrong? He wouldn't doubt it.

"Ready?" he asked Keith, giving him a sideways glance. Keith nodded.

"As I'll ever be," he said disdainfully.

"I think you mean 'never be'," Leo corrected. A small smile made its way onto Keith's face.

"How about you, Pipes?" Leo asked, looking to his left. She nodded thoughtfully. His heart twisted when he saw her. When they were making their plan, they decided the only way they were getting Leo and Keith out of this mess was through their parents. Keith's mom was kind of never mentioned to Teresa, so they couldn't get Krolia's help, and Keith's dad was reported missing and assumed dead. But if Hazel manipulated the Mist, and made Piper seem like Esperanza Valdez, maybe Leo's mom could save him one last time.

The only problem was convincing Teresa that Piper was Leo's mom. Actually, convincing her that Leo's mom was somehow still alive.

"The whole plan rests on you, so be careful," Keith warned. She turned to him and gave him a smile that made Leo want to cry.

"I know."

"Alright, then," Leo said. He took another deep breath and knocked on the door.

Teresa opened it immediately. When she saw who it was, she smiled her pathetically fake smile, one eyebrow raised.

"How did you boys get here?" she asked. Leo blinked, tempted to answer, but he held himself back. He could see Keith clamp his mouth shut in his peripheral vision.

Piper smiled winningly.

"Are you Mrs. Teresa?" she asked politely. Teresa nodded.

"May we come in?" Piper asked her. Teresa stepped aside.

Leo felt her charmspeak wash over him like a tidal wave. He wanted to shove Teresa out of the doorway and let her inside, but he held back.

"So, who are you, darling?" Teresa asked Piper. She kept her greedy little eyes on Leo and Keith, as though she was only putting up with Piper's presence.

"My name is Esperanza," she said.

Leo flinched, but he didn't think anyone noticed it.

"Esperanza?" Teresa asked, confused. "Leo's mother?"

"Of course! Who else?" Piper said.

Leo wanted to facepalm. Maybe Nyssa could have pulled this off better, since she knew machines, and the way she talked reminded Leo of his mom. But Nyssa didn't have charmspeak-Piper did.

"Hey, _mom_, think we could-um, you know-" Leo waved his pointer finger around in a circle, asking her to hurry up.

"Right, right," Piper said. She turned back to Teresa.

"So, now we come to the point-"

"Doesn't Leo speak Spanish?" Teresa interrupted her.

"What?" Piper asked, paling a little.

"Your son speaks fluent Spanish," Teresa said. Her eyes started to clear. Piper's charmspeak was wearing off.

"Oh, of course he does," Piper said. Leo elbowed her.

"I-I mean, we do!" Piper stammered. She said something to Leo in ancient Greek. Because that is difficult to understand, I'll just insert the translations:

Piper: now what?

Leo: I don't know.

Piper: she's onto us.

Leo: I realize that.

Piper: well come up with something, genius!

Leo: alright, I will. Just give me a few seconds.

Leo took yet another deep breath and tried to focus. He couldn't look at Piper without feeling a twinge of sadness. He wished he could just go back to camp and forget-

_Camp... that's it!_

The plan hit him in the head full-force.

He knew what to do.

"Where are the other kids?" he asked in an innocent voice. He smiled really big and opened his eyes wide, blinking a couple of times to add to the dramatic effect.

"Why, they're upstairs," Teresa answered him.

"Mom, can I go play with them?" he asked Piper. She stared at him like, _what game are you playing, Valdez?_

He turned his big, innocent smile into something slightly more devilish.

Piper still didn't understand, he could tell, but she allowed him to go anyway.

_Just wait, Pipes,_ he thought as he raced up the stairs, _I'll do more than save my skin, and Keith's._

_I'm saving all these kids._

**Triple tag yolo lol IDK anymore**

I realize that this is a short one.

Sue me.

But hope you liked it!

Yours in demigodishness and all that, vrepit sa my Holy chalupas! See you on the creature trail!

-Sweet

(P.S, share some theories, and maybe... MAYBE... I'll throw some of your ideas into the upcoming chapters... just a thought. FD)


	18. Fostering Clutches 5

Piper wished Leo would hurry up. She didn't want to pose as his mom anymore.

It's not that she was complaining, but it just felt wrong to pretend to be someone's mother. She wished she could have met Esperanza Valdez. Come to think of it, she wished she knew more about Leo's late mother. Maybe she could find a genie and wish Leo's mom back to life. Or maybe wish Frank's mom back, or maybe even Nico's sister. Man, would it warm her heart to be able to do that, but Hades probably wouldn't be too happy with her if she did.

"Would you like something to drink, ma'am?" Teresa asked her. Piper put on a smile, setting aside her list of wishes for now.

"No, thank you," she said. Piper knew for a fact that Esperanza was a nice person. Obviously, since Leo turned out good.

"Are you sure?" Teresa insisted. Piper thought that Teresa sounded a little desperate, and quickly decided that anything Teresa offered her would be tampered with. Best to stay safe.

"No, I really am good," Piper said.

Teresa nodded and seemed to think deeply, but her eyes were gleaming maliciously.

"How did you escape that fire?" Teresa asked her.

_Fire? What fire?_ Piper thought to herself. _No, the shop collapsed, Leo never said anything about fire._

Then again, he had been hiding his fire powers from her and Jason when they went on their first quest, even after finding out about their powers. Could it be that Leo had accidentally burned down the machine shop while his mother was in there? Was the story he told them completely true?

"The, uh, the back door was unlocked," Piper said. She could see it in her eyes; Teresa didn't believe her.

"Hmm, interesting," Teresa said thoughtfully. Could she hear Piper's heart? No, that's impossible. But the look Teresa was giving her made her think she could.

Piper thought of Hazel, Lance, and Shiro waiting for them outside. Hazel was keeping up Piper's Mist disguise, and Lance and Shiro were backup in case something went horribly wrong.

Which it was about to.

Suddenly, Leo came barreling down the stairs with 20 kids following him.

"Never again shall thou be mistreated by this underwater creature! I say BURN THE WITCH!" he shouted. The kids behind him repeated the cry and charged at Teresa, armed with blankets, socks, and toilet paper. One kid even had a headboard for a bed.

They chased her outside, onto the perfectly done lawn. Leo jogged up to Piper and Keith, who had been silent the entire time, with a wicked grin on his face.

"How did you do that?" Piper asked him.

"And how did that kid grab the headboard?" Keith asked, staring after the children.

"I just helped them reclaim the confidence Teresa had taken from them," Leo said, "By turning their lives into a game."

Piper thought that was ingenius, but something Teresa had said came rushing back into her head. She punched Leo in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asked her.

"Fire. Machine shop. Your mom," Piper said. Leo's face turned red, and his nose started smoking.

"Tell me later. Right now, let's call the police," Piper said. She wanted to bring up all of the questions that she still had about Teresa, but right now was not the time for them.

Piper called the police, who were now on their way.

"Good. Let's go check on the kids. I have a feeling-"

Piper was interrupted by a loud shriek outside, coming from Teresa.

"What was that?" Leo asked.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking.

"I don't know, but we should probably be getting out of here," Keith decided.

Piper looked down at her hands and saw that she was back to being Piper again. Lance and Shiro came running into the building, looking alarmed.

"Where's Hazel?" Leo shouted over the noise. Shiro shook his head, then shouted something about Latin.

He and Lance made their way to the three already in the room, both hoping to grab Piper and Leo to jetpack them to safety. Oh, yeah, Keith had donned his old paladin armor in the case of an emergency, and Piper was just wondering why Teresa didn't notice it. Maybe Hazel was blocking it with the Mist.

The floor gave way, but Lance and Shiro caught them just in time. Teresa shouted something else outside, probably Latin, and Piper saw whatever was below her (probably the basement) break apart and shift to reveal a pitch-black hole.

"No way... that's not?" she said. She glanced towards Leo and saw him nod.

"That's Tartarus," he confirmed.

Piper watched, appalled, as Leo's features seemed to melt away until his face resembled that of a Spanish skull. She hoped she didn't look like that. She probably did. She glanced up at Shiro, who was holding her, and noticed that he looked like one, too, same with Lance and Keith. Teresa shrieked again, and Piper felt a tug below her.

"No," she said, but the tug got stronger and stronger, until it was pulling them all in.

As they plummeted, she looked upwards once more, and saw Teresa smiling down at her.

* * *

I'm back. This one is really short, and I'm sorry if it felt like I was rushing it, but I kind of was. Hope you enjoyed it!

Yours in demigodishness and all that, vrepit sa my Holy Chalupas! See you on the creature trail.

-Sweet


	19. Fostering Clutches 6

As she watched Piper, Shiro, Leo, Keith, and Lance fall, Hazel screamed, already knowing their destination.

She wanted to cry.

She wanted to jump in after them.

She wanted to slice Teresa down the middle.

Hazel knew, when she heard Teresa shout "Go where the gods cannot follow" that they were doomed, and that she wouldn't get there in time to save them.

Now the 5 of them were wandering Tartarus, the place Annabeth and Percy still have nightmares about.

She had waited by the kids when the Police showed up for Teresa, and taken care of any legal business. They only thing she couldn't explain, however, was the army of kids.

After the police had left, Hazel had walked back to Camp Half-Blood. Without realizing it, she had dragged herself to Bunker 9.

She only broke down once she saw Nico waiting there.

"Hazel, there was nothing you could have done," he said gently.

"Yeah, like with me and Annabeth. There was no way to stop it," Percy said.

"Besides," said Annabeth, "they're all tough. They'll survive and find a way back to us."

Hazel didn't know how that would happen. She knew they were strong, and that they could handle themselves. It was getting them out of there that she worried about. Percy and Annabeth has closed to Tartarus side of the Doors of Death. How would they escape?

But Hazel knew by now to have faith in the gods, whether they were terrible parents or self-interested jerks. She prayed to Pluto: prayed that the Doors would show up briefly, just for them.

**Wait it's over already**

I know this one is freakishly short, but it's only some kind of epilogue thing. A way to see what happened after they fell.


	20. Mouth of Hell 1

This is a new version of this chapter. Well, New-ish.

It was pointed out to me (I'm looking at you, Bean) that I kind of messed up the first version of this, so I re-edited it and fixed that, so thank you Bean89.

Enjoy!

**Thanks you Bean**

There was falling.

More falling.

Endless falling.

Grommets and gears, how deep was this hole?

Leo had looked up once again, but there was nothing but Tartarus Sky.

Looking down, there was Tartarus ground.

Tartarus was everywhere! He wanted to see something other than this Hellish landscape. Surprisingly, he wanted to see Teresa, but for multiple reasons.

One, TARTARUS. Two, why hurt them all these years? What was that for? Three, FREAKING TARTARUS.

Oh, well. Leo knew he had no time to dwell on any of that. He and his friends were trapped in Tartarus. It was probably his fault, too. Using the children to distract Teresa was brilliant on his part, but, of course, he managed to screw it up.

As usual.

At least everyone didn't seem mad at him.

_They can't speak for your other friends,_ said the bad part of his brain.

_I thought I told you to get lost_, he had said back to it.

_You did,_ it had replied,_ but it's impossible to get rid of the truth._

Leo sighed. He knew that. It was true that his mom's death was his fault. His fault Annabeth and Percy fell into Tartarus.

Fell here…

That was three days ago. Maybe. Time was as difficult down here in Tartarus as it was on Ogygia.

He glanced at everyone. They were still asleep. He kind of wished he could sneak off, so he wouldn't bring any more bad things crashing their way.

_Bad Valdez, _he scolded himself._ Them first. Worry about yourself later. You aren't important._

_Seventh wheel…_

He was 22 now, and those words were still haunting him? Come on! He died and came back to life, and that's what he was worried about?

_Yes._

"Shut up," he mumbled to himself.

Apparently, sleep was as easy as telling time here in Tartarus, because Keith, Lance, Piper, and Shiro all bounced awake and started flailing their weapons.

"Was goin on?" Lance slurred. He was still half-asleep, Leo could tell.

"Nothing," he sighed. "Just… talking to myself."

"I think Tartarus is getting to us," Piper said. She pulled at her hair, sheathing her dagger. The paladins did the same.

"Your turn for some sleep, Leo," Piper told him sternly. Leo's stomach hit the Tartarus dirt.

Who knows how long they've been down here? Surely not him. But Leo did know that he hadn't been sleeping at all. He didn't want to.

He hated being a demigod. All sorts of nightmares.

Instead of showing all of this, he smiled.

"Sure thing Pipes, but maybe we should try finding a way out of here first," he said to her. His stomach fell again as she shook her head.

"I'm not stupid, Valdez. I know you haven't been getting any sleep," she said.

Uh oh.

"Yeah, we've noticed too," Shiro interjected.

"Lie down Leo. Try and get some sleep," Keith said.

Leo locked eyes with Lance. The two of them had a silent agreement.

"I'll make sure he sleeps," Lance said to the others. "You guys guard the perimeter. I got this."

He smiled flirtatiously, and the others headed off. Lance walked gingerly over to Leo, lying him down on a nice, flat rock.

Yay. Comfortable.

"You alright Leo?" He asked.

"You know, you were the first person I recognized here, and we have spent the least amount of time together," Leo said ruefully to him. Lance just smiled.

"Yeah, but maybe that's a good thing. After all, the last time we saw each other…"

He trailed off, but Leo got it. He remembered like it was yesterday. But don't dwell on the past, Leo, what's wrong with you?!

He shook his head, trying to clear the repeating voices of "keep running, don't stop, stay ahead of the sadness" out of his head.

Leo sighed, then rested his head gently on Lance's chest. He didn't move.

"Try and sleep, Leo," said Lance. It felt just like old times, before the war of Gaea, before he ran away from Lance's family… before any of that.

He wished he was 5 years old again.

"Alright," He said.

Leo didn't expect to, but that night, he found peaceful sleep.


	21. Mouth of Hell 2

On the day of this chapter being uploaded, it is my birthday.

Yay.

But let's get to the story instead.

Bean89: I didn't realize I did that... oops. Just pretend I didn't do that until I can fix it, ok?

**Special Line Break Occasions**

"Do you think he's alright?" Shiro asked.

_No_, thought Piper.

"He hasn't been getting any sleep… at ALL," Keith pointed out.

Piper shook her head. If something was wrong, Leo would tell her. He trusted her.

_Does he, though?_

Ugh. Maybe this is why Leo had been talking to himself. All sorts of negative thoughts. She tried to push the voice to the back of her mind, but it wasn't easy. Even with all her effort, she could still barely hear that little voice.

Weird…

"Yeah, but sleeping here is murder," said Shiro. Piper stopped walking abruptly and turned to Shiro.

"Do _not_ say that here," she said, sticking her pointer finger in his face.

Shiro seemed confused at first, but then nodded. Piper backed up.

She turned and kept walking, and she could hear Shiro and Keith not far behind her. Three days stuck in Tartarus… so how long has it been since Leo slept?

_And I still want answers…_

Piper stopped again, and Keith actually bumped into her.

"Sor-"

"Shh…" Piper cut him off. Something had seemed… different, for a second. Almost as if someone else…

"Oh, gods," she said. She turned back around and bolted in Leo and Lance's direction.

"What's going on?" Shiro asked beside her.

"I was thinking… and it was a different voice," she said. She could see the confusion on Shiro and Keith's faces.

"I can't explain it… we have to check on Leo!" She panted. "I think he's in trouble!"

None of them said any more until they got there.

Lance was sitting upright, stroking Leo's hair subconsciously. Leo was asleep on his lap.

When they showed up, Lance looked up at them, then stopped stroking Leo's hair, as if suddenly aware that he was doing it.

"What's going on?" He asked, worry laced through his voice.

"No time," Piper said. She grabbed Leo by the shoulders and started shaking him.

"What are you doing?" Keith asked her. He took a step toward her, as if he was going to pull her off Leo, but stopped himself when he realized-

"Leo isn't waking up!" Piper cried.

She shook him harder, but Leo's eyes remained shut. Piper checked his pulse; yep, still there. She put her hand above his mouth, and she could feel his breaths.

Maybe he was just in a really deep sleep? After all, this was the first time he was sleeping since they fell in Tartarus… but Piper got the feeling that that wasn't it.

_Maybe he's dead, and you're just imagining things, _said the voice in her head.

"Who are you?" She growled at it. Now the paladins were giving her worried looks.

_I'm an old friend,_ it said, but judging by the way the paladins jumped, Piper had to guess that she spoke to them, as well.

"I don't recognize your voice," she said. The voice just laughed.

_My dear, _it said_, I don't speak directly to anyone. _

Piper could feel the change in the voice before she heard it. She glanced toward Shiro and Keith, then turned to Lance. She had a bad feeling in her stomach.

_That's right,_ the voice said, now scratchy and filled with pain and longing.

_Not pain, _Piper realized. _She feels…_

_Misery_, agreed the woman, in a painstaking voice that made Piper want to cry. _I am Achlys._


	22. Mouth of Hell 3

Hey guys! It's been a while, but that's because I'm trying to write my own book (and uh... catch up ok some of my other fanfics on here... hehehe)

Uh, anyway, here it is!

**I made up a word to make your day better: hdulphaduh. It doesn't necessarily mean anything, it just makes me happy**

"Misery is a girl?" Lance asked. "And what's with the tear-choked voice? Did she swallow a sorrow pill or something?"

He had only been trying to lighten the mood, but Shiro's glare told him to stop.

_Alright, sure, whatever. No need for humor, I guess_, Lance thought to himself.

_Yes, your humor is much underrated_, replied Achlys's voice.

"Gah! Get out of my head!" Lance shouted.

"What do you want?" Piper shouted angrily.

"To share," Achlys answered smoothly. Then, as though choking, "To share your pain."

"What?" Piper started. The whole area disappeared, and they were standing in a department store. Lance could see Piper, Jason, and Leo talking to a woman in a sales outfit.

"What's going on?" Keith asked. Piper watched the scene with horror.

"No way," she said.

**Wassup? Captain linebreak in da HOUSE**

How was this happening? Why were they back at the department store? And what the HECK WAS MEDEA DOING HERE?!

"I am the princess of Colchis," she said. Piper stiffened at her voice, not sure if it would affect the boys around her.

She was suddenly aware of the fact that she was surrounded by boys.

"My friends call me Your Highness. Now, what are you looking for?" Medea asked, looking at the three hungrily.

"This is just a memory... nothing to worry about," Piper muttered to herself.

"Wait... a memory? So this already happened?" Lance asked. Piper nodded without looking at him.

"Misery said she would share our pain... so, how is this painful?" Shiro asked.

"Wasn't Medea an ancient Greek sorceress?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, she could... charmspeak," Piper admitted.

"What exactly is charmspeak? Nico mentioned it, but he never elaborated," Shiro said.

"You'll see. Just keep a close eye on how Leo and Jason react to what Medea says," Piper said. She wasn't looking forward to watching one of her most epic fails unfold before her again.

They watched as Piper poked Jason in the ribs and mumble his name warningly. Jason seemed to snap out of some very deep thoughts.

"Oh, um, right... Actually, uh, your highness, that's our friend down there... Gleeson Hedge. The, uh, satyr. Could we... um... have him back? Please?" Jason asked awkwardly.

"Of course! I would LOVE to show you my inventory!" agreed Medea immediately.

"Wait, that's not he asked," Keith pointed out.

"He didn't realize it, apparently," Piper said through gritted teeth.

"First, may I know your names?" the Princess of Colchis asked.

"No," answered the three paladins at once.

"Jason, I wouldn't-" Piper started to warn.

"This is Piper," Jason interrupted. "This is Leo. I'm Jason."

They watched as Medea's face glowed with anger. No, literally glowed. After a second, she was back to normal, big smile and all. But her eyes never left Jason.

"Wasn't she married to a guy names Jason?" Keith asked, trying to piece together the story.

"Yep," Piper said, dread settling in her stomach. She remembered this day clear as crystal.

"Jason," the princess purred. "What an interesting name. I think we'll have to make a special deal for you. Come, children, and let's go shopping!"

They watched Medea give them a tour of the place, and they saw Piper glance back the elevator occasionally. Piper allowed herself to feel proud of that one thing; that she didn't run, even though she had the chance.

Medea showed them her potions. She and Leo had a-very awkward discussion about one of the potions.

"Hangnails?" Leo asked her.

"Any disease, sweet boy," Medea answered him.

"I don't think hangnails is a disease," Lance said, watching intently.

"I thought this was supposed to be a bad memory?" Shiro asked, looking at Piper.

"Like I said, watch Leo and Jason," Piper said back.

"This vial will kill you painfully," Medea said.

"Awesome," Jason said with a sleepy voice.

"Whoa," said Shiro. "Is that it?"

"The beginning. Trust me, it gets worse," Piper said, glancing at Leo. He didn't look quite so asleep now, as if the sound of Medea's evil voice were waking him up.

She introduced them to a couple more potions, answered a couple questions from Piper.

"How much?" Piper asked about one of the potions.

"Well now, the price is always tricky. I love helping people-honestly, I do! And I always keep my bargains, but sometimes, people try to cheat me," said Medea. Her gaze landed on Jason and hardened. "Once, for instance, I met a handsome young man who wanted a treasure from my father's kingdom. We made a bargain, and I promised to help him steal it."

"From your own dad?" Jason asked, actually worried about something Medea had said.

"Oh, don't worry," the princess assured him. "I demanded a high price. The young man had to take me away with him. He was good looking, dashing, strong..." said Medea, her gaze drifting far away. Then her eyes rested on Piper. "Surely you, my dear, understand how one may be attracted to such a hero and want to help him?"

Piper blushed but didn't say anything.

They all watched as Medea put two and two together. After a while, as in, a LONG while, she finally led them downstairs, where they watched as Medea convinced Leo and Jason to fight each other.

"Jason's always the star. He always gets the attention and takes me for granted," Leo said with a scowl on his face. Piper could see the paladins all shuffle in her peripheral vision. She remembered what Jason said to Leo next, and nearly lost it then and there.

"You're annoying Leo. You don't take anything seriously. You can't even fix a dragon!" Jason growled. Even from here, Piper could see the hurt on Leo's face-even while he was in a trance. Lance winced from behind her, and Piper got the feeling that he had felt the same way on certain occasions.

Suddenly, the illusion was gone, and they were back in Tartarus. It was so dark, and horrifying, and FAMILIAR, that Piper kind of wished they were back in the department store again.

"Wait... is she going to do that to all of us?" Keith asked, worry in his voice.

As he spoke, Piper looked around and realized that they were on the moon. She saw three people sitting there, digging ice crystals out of the surface.

Two people she didn't quite recognize, and Shiro.

**Watatatatatatatatatatatatatata**

So, that's the next chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Most of you might not get this comment, but... HEY CLANK, WHAT DID YOU THINK????? If you're still here, you- Uh, ok, I'll stop.


	23. Mouth of Hell 4

Hi! Sorry I'm taking so long to update this story. This one is giving me a real brain-fart. Oh, well. I'm trying to fill in the plot holes from, like, this whole story. Clank (a guest I may or may not have mentioned) gave me a far-fetched idea, but it might work. Bleh, enough rambling. Let's get to it!

**There is never enough rambling**

No. Nonononononono! They couldn't be watching this… it would crush Keith!

Or would it crush him more? Shiro didn't know; all he did know is that he didn't want anyone watching this happen.

He, Matt, and Sam were digging the ice crystals out of Pluto's moon, Kerberos. Matt pulled a piece out, causing Sam to chuckle.

"Easy, son, this ice is delicate," he said, eyes twinkling with amusement.

"What's going on?" Piper asked. She noticed Leo starting to sit up, so she crouched over and helped him.

"Is this the Kerberos mission?" Keith asked with a shaky voice. Shiro just kept his eyes straight ahead. He really didn't want Keith to see this.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and urned to see Lance. He was gesturing to Keith, so Shiro went over and sat next to him.

"It's fine… really! You can tell I survived," he said, trying to lighten Keith's mood. He saw the ghost of a smile play on Keith's lips, and both boys turned back to watch the scene unfold.

"Amazing," said Matt, staring at the ice in wonder. "Isn't this exciting, Shiro?"

"You guys get a little more excited about ice samples than I do," Shiro said with a chuckle.

Shiro (the one in Tartarus) smiled. Pidge would be excited about this excursion. Well, they were all related…

"This is history in the making!" Sam exclaimed. "Not only have we traveled farther than any human ever has, but this ice could hold microscopic clues about the existence of life outside Earth!"

"Think of it, dad," Matt said, finally looking at his father. "We could use those clues to become the first people to meet aliens!"

The paladins smiled at that statement. Man, would that have been fun. Much better than being abducted.

"My life's work would be complete!" Sam said, big smile on his face. Shiro looked at them admirably.

The moon began to rumble.

"Is that an earthquake?" Piper asked.

"It's anything BUT an earthquake," Shiro mumbled, glancing at Keith. He was pale as Nico di Angelo.

"What is that? Seismic activity?" Sam asked. Lance chuckled, because he and Piper both had the same thought.

"We should get back to the ship," Shiro suggested uneasily.

A Galra ship appears, and they glance worriedly at Shiro.

"Wha? What is that?! It can't be…" Sam wondered.

"Run! Come on, run!" Shiro shouts desperately.

They watch as the trio tries to run from the ship, but it's literally impossible. The ship gets them.

It cuts to the inside of the ship, where Shiro, Matt, and Sam are shoved to their knees in front of a purple skinned creature.

"Emporer Zarkon, we were scouting system X-9-Y as ordered, when we found these primitive scientists. I don't think they know anything useful," said the Galra commander.

"What's his name?" Keith asked, gripping the blade that his mom had given him.

"I never got it," Shiro replied.

"Let's call him Bill," Lance suggested. Shiro choked out a chuckle.

"Take them back to the main fleet for interrogation," said Zarkon's voice. The paladins shivered and reached for their bayards subconsciously. "The druids will find out what they know."

Lance and Keith both turned to Shiro, eyes wide. This must be close to when he lost his arm, right?

"No, that happened a bit later," Shiro said.

"Please, we come from a peaceful planet!" past Shiro pleaded. Everyone in Tartarus snickered. Peaceful? Yeah, right. "W-we mean you no harm! We're unarmed!"

The Galra soldier behind him knocks him out, and the whole scene fades. Shiro rubbed the back of his head, phantom pains nearly making him pass out again.

"What?" Piper asked. She turned to the paladins, the rest of her question unspoken.

"That was a couple years ago," Shiro said. "When I still had two arms."

Nobody chuckled. Leo sat bolt upright.

"Guys! Do NOT fall asleep in Tartarus! It has to be the STUPIDEST THING YOU CAN DO EVER AND WHY AM I STILL TALKING?!!?!?!?" he said.

This earned a grateful chuckle from Shiro, and he watched as the landscape shifted to that of a space prison.

"What is this?" Keith asked. Lance's face paled, and they saw him walk into the room, talking to some kind of creature.

"Uh oh," he mumbled to himself.

"What?" Keith asked.

"Maybe I'm just a fifth wheel," said past Lance, looking toward the ground. "Seventh, if you count Coran and Allura."


	24. Yep, Its another note

Hey guys.

We (me and my family) just got back from the Philippines! It was awesome!

However, while I was there, I found out that I couldn't use my usual writing app thing... so I hadn't been able to write anything for a whole month.

Also, the internet there sucked, so it might not have uploaded anything anyway.

So, I just wanted to make that clear. Thanks for reading this!

-Sweet


	25. Mouth of Hell 5

I'm writing again? Yay!

That's right, folks, after my little one-month vacay, I'm back!

**Welcome back, Sweet**

Keith and Shiro wheeled on Lance, who was silently going through every curse word he knew.

"Lance? What is going on here?" Keith demanded.

Lance crossed his arms, being stubborn.

"Uh, I'm talking to the yupper!" He said in a "duh" voice.

"Seventh wheel?" Piper repeated back. She glanced at Leo, worry on her face. Lance could feel his own bout of worry pacing through and around his heart. Why was she looking at Leo like that?

Leo, still groggy, chuckled.

"Hehe, seventh wheel. We're twins, ladrón de tacos."

Lance smiled at his old nickname, but frowned immediately when he realized Leo said "we're twins." No one had called him a seventh wheel, had they?

"Lance, why would you think that?" Shiro asked, a hurt look on his face. Lance wished he was alone with Leo. Really, he's the only one he wanted to talk to about this.

Especially if he had been called a seventh wheel. Then he would understand how Lance felt right now.

"Well… I mean… I don't think that way NOW…" he stuttered. Man, was he a mess today. He could see it in Keith and Shiro's faces, though; they didn't believe him.

"Lance..." Shiro said in his "commander" voice. Lance stood his ground.

"What do you want me to say? This happened in the past, I don't feel that way anymore, it seems like someone called Leo a seventh wheel, which is where my worries lie..."

He would have kept going if he could think of anything else to add.

"Alright. If you don't feel that way anymore, what changed it? What made you stop feeling like a seventh wheel?" Keith asked, arms crossed. Lance once again shuffled through many silent curse words.

Where did he even hear all of these?

"Our talk," Lance said. "When Shiro came back."

"Really?" Keith asked, genuinly shocked.

Lance was telling a half truth. Yes, his talk with Keith had made him feel better, but not completely.

Lance paled.

"What if it shows the talk?" Lance realized.

"Relax, I think it's only showing one per person," Piper reassured him. "Besides, if it were going to show all of everyone's worst memories, we would end up being here for years."

"Yeah, but it could already have been years since we fell down here," Leo said, finally able to form conscious thought. "Also, OW. Major headache."

Lance looked around at the scenery to see if it would change. Well, it did, but this time they were on a beach.

When Leo realized where they were, it didn't seem to matter to him whether he had a headache or not.

"No, gods," he mumbled.

"You know this one?" Lance asked worriedly. Leo nodded.

"I guess talking about seventh wheels brings up this memory," Leo said dryly.

"Is this with Nemesis?" Piper asked. Leo nodded.

"Goddess of revenge, right?" Keith asked. "What would she be doing on a beach?"

"**What are you talking about? What are you doing here?**" past Leo asked. Keith blushed slightly.

Nemesis opened a-fortune cookie? She crushed it and scattered the pieces around her feet.

**"Lucky numbers... ridiculous! That's not even a proper fortune**," she complained. Then, she turned to past Leo.

**"To answer your question, Leo Valdez, the gods are in terrible shape. It always happens when a civil war is brewing between you Romans and Greeks. The Olymppians are torn between their two natures, called on the both sides. They become quite schizophrenic, I'm afraid. Splitting headaches and disorientation, and whatnot."**

"**But we're not at war**," said past Leo. Present Leo and Piper flinched, as did past Hazel.

"**Um... except for the fact that you recently blew up large sections of New Rome..."**

Past Leo just stared at her, expression unreadable.

"**Not on purpose!"**

"How do you blow up whole sections of a city on accident?" Keith asked. Leo groaned and put his head in his hands.

"**I know, but the Romans don't realize that. They'll pursue us in retaliation,"** Hazel pointed out.

They shivered as Nemesis cackled.

"**Listen to the girl, Valdez. War is coming, and Gaea has seen to it, with your help."**

"No way she's blaming a whole war on Leo," Lance said in disbelief. Keith frowned.

"Hazel literally just said that Leo blew up a city," he said. Their Leo flushed.

"It wasn't me!"

"So… what were you saying about seventh wheel?" Shiro asked Leo, who's already red face somehow got redder.

"Um…"

They turned back to the scene when, as if waiting for him, Shiro's question was answered.

"**You will always be the seventh wheel. You will never find a place among your brothers,**" Nemesis told Leo.

Keith, Shiro, and Piper exploded.

**Oof**

Hopefully not literally exploded...

I know this one is short, but-

Yeah, no, I'm out of excuses. This one is just short. Hope you liked it anyway!

ladrón de tacos-Taco thief


	26. MouthofHell6

Hey guys, so, I'm back again.

I hope this chapter soothes anger and answers questions. If I missed something, or there's something I still haven't covered, please point it out. I'm sorry if this feels rushed, but I wanted to give you guys the Teresa answer before I forgot it (again... hehe)

Also, if you want to see my family's trip to the Philippines, just go to YouTube and look up "PinkPiggychu." If no results pop up for it, just add "Little Philippine Trip" to the searchbar.

Now that that's out of the way, on with the freakishly short chapter! (gives the audience an apologetic look for how short the chapter is)

* * *

"What?" roared Piper. "I knew Nemesis really screwed you over, but... AGH!"

"Dude..." Lance mumbled. He turned to Keith and Shiro who, as he had expected, were both steaming.

Another image popped up, almost too quickly for anyone to say anything. They watched on in horror as a creature with fiery hair and a donkey leg led a bunch of kids down into a basement.

"Isn't that... Teresa's house?" Lance asked, looking towards Leo and Keith. The two nodded mutely.

They watched as the scene shifted into that of a basement, but it wasn't the same basement that they had all been locked up in. This looked like an average, run-of-the-mill basement. Well, except for one thing.

There was an unconscious body lying on the floor.

They all watched in horror as Leo broke down in front of her, trying desperately to keep her from using a hammer. They watched her call Leo an arsonist (Piper was beyond unpleased now) and as he was thrown to the floor.

Then they saw Keith carve 7 lines into her forearm.

"Seven," Piper counted.

"Actually, what significance does the number 7 have to do with Leo?" Keith asked, remembering his exact words to Teresa.

"The Prophecy of 7," Piper explained.

"What's that?"

"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call," she recited.

"To storm or fire, the world must fall," Leo joined in.

"An oath to keep with a final breath."

"And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."

"...Ok. Maybe be a little more specific?" Lance asked, trying not to panic.

"Seven half-bloods: Me, Piper, Jason, Annabeth, Percy, Hazel, and Frank," Leo explained. "Storm or fire, the world must fall. Either me or Jason would stop Gaea from destroying everything. Gaea is 'world' in Ancient Greek."

"An oath to keep, Leo died so he could keep his promise to the girl he loved," Piper cut in. "Foes bear arms to the Doors of Death; well, we still don't really understand what that line meant."

"Leo died... storm or fire... so, Leo was the one to take down Gaea, but in the process, he died, which was good for him, because it was the only way to get back to his girlfriend?" Keith asked. Piper nodded, stunned that he had figured it out so quickly.

"And what about that freaky fire-haired lady?" Lance asked, gesturing back to the scene in front of them.

"Is that Teresa?" Shiro asked. Leo clapped his hands together, having just figured everything out.

"That's why she could control the mist and charmspeak!" he exclaimed. "It would also explain why she was so cruel towards kids! Teresa is a dracanae!"

The paladins gave him black looks, but Piper understood him perfectly.

"That makes so much sense... dracanae are like vampires," she explained, to which the paladins finally understood.

"But she hated the dark," Keith pointed out. Leo thought for a moment longer, then decided on something.

"When monsters are slain, they get sent here, to Tartarus. This place is a miserable embodiment of darkness in itself, and monsters generally tend to avoid it. What if, since Teresa lived over an entrance to Tartarus, she was paranoid that going anywhere dark would bring her here?"

"Leo, you are making a freakishly large amount of sense, even to me," Lance pointed out. Leo smirked at him.

"So that's why she hated us..."

"And why she stayed away from the basement," Shiro said.

"I only have one question," Piper said. Leo turned to her in curiosity. "It was something Teresa said to me while I was pretending to be your mom."

Leo swallowed hard. This couldn't be good.

"She asked me how I got out of the fire," Piper said. Leo's hair proceeded to catch on fire, which made the paladins back up a bit.

"Uh..."

"You told me and Jason that the shop collapsed," Piper remembered. "What really happened?"

Now Leo was conflicted. Tell her the truth, or just come up with another lie? There was no point in hiding it from her anymore...

Still, Leo had never told anyone before. Well, scratch that. He had told Frank. But this was something that he never even told Jason. Jason had figured it out on his own.

"Alright, so the truth is..."

_"I'll be right back, Leo."_

Leo froze in place at the sound of that voice. No way Achyls could be this cruel...

They turned back to the scenery, which was displayed in front of a nice-looking shop. There was a smaller, much younger version of Leo standing out front, smiling up at a pretty lady whose black hair was up in a braid. Piper recognized her already. So did the paladins. You don't just forget that face, especially if someone had used magic to match the face.

This was Esperanza Valdez. And, judging by the look on their Leo's face and how wild his hair-fire was getting, this was about to answer Piper's question.

"Is this...?" Piper started, but when she turned to look at Leo, he was slowly making his way up to his mother.

They watched in stunned silence as Esperanza walked back inside the shop, and as the door shut and locked itself behind her.

Little Leo banged and tapped on the door, while their Leo just backed off. He took one look at his group and ran off, leaving the scene, and his friends, behind.


	27. Mouth of Hell 7

Hi guys! I have another short chapter for you all!

Percy: Hey, K-

Nope, I'm Sweet today.

Percy: You're never sweet. Anyway, how are they?

We're about to find out dude. How'd you get here, anyway?

Percy: um... that question is better left unanswered.

Alright... since you're here, say hi to the readers.

Percy: wassup guys?

* * *

Leo bolted, running as fast as he could.

No, this couldn't be happening. They couldn't all be watching him... they just couldn't.

He turned around to see if he was being followed, but if they were, he had lost them ages ago.

Or maybe they had lost him.

Or maybe they hadn't followed him.

Leo sat down on a rock, thinking. Piper had asked a fair question, and it was pretty obvious that he wasn't going to answer her. Well, maybe it just wouldn't have been the answer she was looking for. Either way, it was probably for the better that they chose to stay back and watch him...

Well, at least they were getting the explanation that he owed them.

Leo sighed. He put his head in his hands, trying to calm his nerves. Every part of his body wanted to run, to leave all of them there, and not worry about the talk that would most likely come. But he sat there, waiting either for them to find him, or maybe for his own self to be ready to head back.

"Leo?"

He looked up sharply, coming face-to-face with Piper.

"Grommets and gears! What the heck are you doing in my face?!" he exclaimed in shock. She backed up a bit, revealing Lance, Keith, and Shiro behind her, all panting and breathing hard.

"I was in your face because I was trying to see if you're awake," she told him, giving him a worried look.

"I already told you-NEVER sleep in Tartarus," Leo told her. Piper rolled her eyes.

"You alright?" Shiro asked, getting right down to business.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Leo said with a nonchalant shrug. Where had his stomach learned to do the can-can?

"You sure? Because your hair is on fire... again," Keith oh-so-elegantly pointed out.

"Which is really cool," Lance said offhandedly. Leo averted his gaze, eyes floating over the four people standing in front of him.

"So..."

"Before you ask, we didn't watch it," Piper interrupted him. Leo's head snapped up again, nearly giving him whiplash.

"What?"

"You ran off, so we decided to follow you and make sure you're alright," Shiro said.

"But..."

Leo was at a loss for words. They wanted to make sure he was ok instead of watching why he ran off? His shock and confusion must have died down the fire, since Lance decided to rub Leo's head.

The way he used to. Before Leo ran from his house.

The gesture was both comforting and painful at the same time. Leo was starting to feel nostalgic, which sent up red flags in his brain.

He cleared his throat and stood up, effectively making Lance remove his hand.

"Well... maybe... well, I mean we could... Let's head back and watch it," he said.

He wanted to do literally anything other than watch it, but... maybe it was time he told someone. Other than Frank.

"Looks like it followed us," Keith pointed out, gesturing to their surroundings.

Piper grabbed Leo's hand in a comforting grip, and they all watched as Leo's mother died in the machine shop.

When it was over, Leo found it a surprise that he hadn't caught fire once throughout the whole thing. Piper gave his hand one final squeeze, then she pulled away.

"Is that the real reason you didn't tell us about your powers?" she asked him. Leo shook his head.

"One of them. For the most part, I was telling the truth," he said. Once the scene had cleared, all he saw was Tartarus.

"Was that the last one?" Lance asked. They all studied the normal hellish landscape that they had fallen into, noticing only one abnormality.

"What's that? A giant door?" Shiro asked, pointing. It looked like there was a set of wide black double-doors sitting there.

"The Doors of Death!" Piper exclaimed excitedly. Leo's nose caught fire in his excitement. He quickly patted it out.

"Literal doors," Keith mumbled.

"Come on! We can go home!" Leo said, already running towards the doors. He stopped within three feet of them, frowning. It couldn't be this easy, could it?

Piper, noticing his hesitation, approached him.

"What's wrong, Leo?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said. The paladins reached them.

"Then why'd you stop?" Keith asked.

"I told you: nothing's wrong," Leo said. "As in, nothing has tried to kill or stop us the whole time we've been down here in Tartarus."

Everyone looked around in discomfort, just realizing that Leo was, indeed, correct. The paladins drew their bayards, while Piper pulled Katoptris and Leo got his favorite ballpeen hammer from his tool belt.

They studied the doors for a bit, wondering if something was actually going on, or if this was all just paranoia. They met back up in front of the doors, finding nothing of interest.

"Maybe we're just being on edge because we're here in Tartarus... where some of mythology's worst enemies are..."

"Nah, Pipes. It's because those enemies haven't shown their ugly faces that we're on edge."

"Maybe we're just on the wrong side of Tartarus," Shiro said with an uneasy look on his face.

_Maybe_, Leo hoped. _Maybe._


	28. Mouth of Hell 8

Hey there!

I know it's been a while since I uploaded a chapter here. Sorry about that.

I have no excuse for not uploading for a while, except I sorta lost interest in the story for a while.

I won't be uploading every day, and not very often, but I do have plans of finishing this story.

And a special shoutout to Bean89, ShadefireDragon, Matt, and another user who's name I don't know (you know who you are!) for putting up with this story! I love you guys!

So, without more of my sorry excuses, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

**_Line Break _**

Percy was still pacing across the floor of Bunker 9.

"You may wanna stop," Pidge told him. "That's not going to get them out of the Pit."

Percy stopped pacing, but Annabeth was still going.

"Repeat what happened again," she demanded, and Hazel sighed.

"I already told you-Leo rallied up the kids and managed to distract Teresa. While she was being pushed further away from her house, she opened up to floor of her house and Keith, Shiro, Lance, Piper, and Leo fell into Tartarus."

Annabeth stopped pacing and turned to Hazel.

"And that was 4 months ago... we don't know if-"

"No, they're alive," Nico interrupted her. "I can feel it-somehow, from all the way up here, I can still feel them. Also, I haven't seen them anywhere in the Underworld, Elysium or no."

"We just have to trust that they'll find a way back up," Krolia said. "In the meantime, how are defenses?"

"Wearing thin," Percy informed her. "I don't know where those hellhounds came from, or why they showed up as soon as they fell, but we need to get rid of them soon. Thalia's tree can only keep them out for so long."

"Is there anyone we can talk to in order to get them out?" Hunk asked. Hazel faced him with sad eyes.

"Well, I suppose I could talk to Hecate, but I passed out the last time I spoke to her."

"I could try talking to Thanatos," Nico offered. "He might be able to move the doors for them."

"I thought it doesn't work that way?" Percy asked him. Nico shook his head.

"It doesn't."

"Well, we have to come up with something," Annabeth decided. "Nico, talk to Thanatos. He could probably find a way to get a message to them."

"But by the time Thanatos found them, the doors will have moved from wherever they are!" Percy exclaimed.

"At least they'll know that we're trying," Annabeth reminded him. Percy sat down in thought.

"I wish there was a way we could communicate with them immediately," Pidge said. Green nudged her back, giving her an idea.

"The lions!" She exclaimed. Hunk, Krolia, and Allura smiled wide, while the rest of the seven demigods just looked confused.

"What about them?" Jason asked.

"We can send one of the lions down to Tartarus to help them get out!" Pidge exclaimed, but Nico shook his head.

"It's a long fall, and besides, you need the doors to get out," he said. Pidge deflated slightly, but she perked up again immediately.

"The lions can also send thoughts and feelings to their paladins. It's hard to explain, and it's kind of weird, but it can happen!"

"They could send this whole conversation to them!" Hunk caught on. Percy and Annabeth smiled for the first time in months. Nico and Hazel shared a look. This was the best thing they had come up with for helping them out… Frank and Hazel cheered, while the remaining paladins prepared the lions.

They all could only hope that this would work.

Piper looked around a moment longer before dropping to the hot, glass-like substance that was the floor. She sighed and watched the others. Keith, Shiro, and Lance had sat down a while ago, surprisingly. For being trained in the army, they didn't stay vigilant for very long.

Though it was also to be expected. They didn't exactly have the same luck that demigods had-that is, to say, no luck.

It also didn't didn't help that Shiro had gotten a bit of a headache once Piper sat down. Everyone turned to him.

"You alright, Shiro?" Leo asked. Shiro nodded, but he was gripping his head.

"I'm getting a message from Black. Apparently, we've been down here for four months," he said. Piper and Leo simultaneously sighed.

"I would have expected a different reaction," Keith said, but Piper smirked dryly at him.

"Considering the fact that we're demigods, I'm surprised we haven't been down here longer."

That sat there a little longer, staring at the Doors of Death. Finally, Leo relented. With a shrug, he said, "Let's just go through… this may be our only chance for escape."

Piper stood up nervously, helping Shiro up as well. Lance and Keith walked over to Leo, making sure he was all good.

Piper was still curious about the relationship between the three of them, but she knew better than to think about it. It was almost the same thing as thinking about family from your godly parent's side. Some things should never be thought of.

The five of them stood in front of the Doors, all hesitant and a little scared to go through.

"We have to go through now, at the same time," Leo said. "Who knows how much longer they'll be here."

They held hands. Leo turned to Piper with a nervous smile on his face.

"See you on the other side."

And they all stepped through.


End file.
